You Can Never Really Walk Away
by brookefan329
Summary: Futurefic. Brooke Davis has just graduated college and has enjoyed her years away from Tree Hill. When an unexpected someone pops up in her life she realizes that maybe she can never stray too far from her roots.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Miss Independent

Brooke Davis peered out her car window and took in this quaint little house that stood in front of her. In a million years she never thought that she would be happy to live in a house so little. After all she had grown up with the best and biggest of everything that life had to offer. Her parents had given her everything she ever asked for. Maybe that was it though, maybe she was so happy because this little house was all hers. She was finally starting a life for herself by herself.

Brooke had endured some hardships in the past five years. She had harbored a love for Lucas Scott that had swept her off her feet and taken away almost her entire sense of self. It had devastated her when he caught her cheating with her then best friend Peyton Sawyer. Her heart never let go though and she harbored a secret love for him for quite a while.

She remembered the day that it all changed. The day she came back to Tree Hill to start her senior year of high school. Lucas had professed his love for her before she left to go and spend the summer with her parents. They had talked only a few times through out the summer and she had anticipated them starting their relationship over again upon her return. She had anticipated it until she walked into her bedroom at Lucas' house and found him and Peyton making out furiously in the bed that Brooke had to sleep in.

Brooke realized that there wasn't a chance for her and Lucas ever. He was meant to be with Peyton and Brooke could finally accept that. However, she could not live in Lucas' house and watch the two of them together all the time. So Brooke begged her friends Nathan and Haley Scott to take her in. After sleeping on their couch for months she decided that she needed to start making it without the shoulder of her friends to lean on.

Brooke begged and pleaded with her parents for them to pay for an apartment for her to live in. She wanted to prove to both her parents and herself that she could be responsible and take care of herself. Those months were the most freeing of her life. She longed for the day when she would finish college and start living her life on her own terms and without her parents' money.

Well today was that day. Brooke graduated from UNC Greensboro only a few days ago but had been working for months to find a good job so that she could really be free. Her hard work paid off and she found a job working for an upscale woman's clothing store in Florida as a buyer. She would be responsible for helping decide what the store would sell. It wasn't her life's goal though, she wanted to own her own store and sell clothes that she herself would design. Now wasn't the time for giant risks though, she would start slow and work towards that goal.

Brooke walked into the house and took it all in. There were only two bedrooms, one she would use as a bedroom but the other she would turn into an office. The kitchen was small, but that suited her well, she could master a lot of skills but cooking certainly wasn't one of them. Her dining room was also small and connected to the spacious living room. None of that was her favorite part. It was the huge back porch that afforded her a breath taking view of the city of Tampa that really won her over. She lived a top a hill and looking down made her realize how small the world really was. Every time she looked down at the city she knew that she could tackle it, that it was here that she could achieve her dreams.

After hours of unpacking boxes Brooke decided to hop in the shower and go and find somewhere to eat some dinner. After getting out of the shower she threw on some sweats and peered into the mirror. She was always pretty happy with what she saw, her complexion was always soft and milky and contrasted to well with her dark brown/auburn hair. Her mouth was always her favorite feature though. When she smiled she had two very definite dimples and that coupled with her perfect white teeth and full lips formed the patented Brooke Davis smile. It was that patented smile that got her almost anything she wanted when it came to boys.

She decided to head down to just grab a salad and McDonalds and then head back home to finish unpacking. Once she got to McDonalds she started through the drive thru but then remembered that they only way she would meet people is if she actually was around people. Brooke took a deep breath and got out of her car and headed inside.

Brooke headed to the counter to order and once she got her food headed over to a small table by the window where she could enjoy her salad and watch all the cars drive by. As she was eating she got lost in her thoughts. She was thinking of all the stuff she wanted to buy to decorate her house. Then she thought about how all that would have to wait because she wasn't going to beg mommy and daddy to pay for it all anymore. When they bought her a few suits to get her started in the real world she swore that that was the last time she would take anything from them. From here on out it was Brooke Davis against the world.

Brooke was close to finishing up her salad when a familiar voice quickly ripped her out of her daydream, "Brooke Davis, is that you?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: **Thanks for checking out my fan fiction! I had read other future fics and really loved them so I decided to write my own. Brooke is my favorite character so it was an easy choice. Thanks to anyone who reviewed, I really appreciate it. These first few chapters are basically just some set up, I promise there will be some drama soon.

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Chapter 2- Sometimes the Past Comes Sneaking Back

"Nathan, Nathan Scott? Is that you?" Brooke asked in surprise.

"Yep it's me. What are you doing here Brooke?"

"Eating some dinner." Brooke replied, still obviously a little surprised to see Nathan standing there in front of her. Not only was he an old friend from Tree Hill, but he was also Lucas' brother.

"No I meant here, in Tampa. I thought that you went to school in North Carolina?"

"I did, but I just graduated. I got a job here that I start next Monday and I just bought a house. I actually only moved here today. Half of my house is still in boxes. What about you? You decided not to stay in North Carolina either?" Brooke was really curious how it came about that he ended up in the same town as her, hours away from where they grew up.

"Well I graduated Duke a couple of weeks ago. My mom moved here about two years ago so I figured that I would come stay with her for a little while, rest up ya know?" Brooke didn't really hear what he was saying, she was amazed at how she lost herself in his baby blue eyes. It did freak her out a little bit that these eyes were so similar to Lucas'.

"I figured you would go on to play basketball professionally after college. How come you didn't?" Brooke was curious why he would walk away from something he was so amazing at.

"I am going to play. I got drafted by the Miami Heat. I had a little time off before training starts. Plus I had hurt my knee running so I had been seeing a physical therapist at school trying to get it back to normal. Sometimes my knee is so tired I can't drive myself home. I didn't want to be in Miami all alone and have no one to come pick me up if I couldn't drive myself."

"It is gorgeous down here. Your mom definitely picked a good place to move to. What made her leave Tree Hill?" Brooke was curious.

"Dan. He got so bad he actually ran her out of the state. I think that things just got worse and worse once I went to school." Brooke remembered the torture that both Lucas and Nathan had endured with their father Dan. Nathan had even become emancipated at the age of 16 it got so bad.

"Wow. Well good for her for moving on. I really should run Nathan, I want to get all the boxes that are on my bed unpacked so I can actually sleep in it sometime." She was secretly disappointed to have to leave. Brooke was really enjoying talking to him. She also couldn't get enough of those baby blue eyes.

"Brooke, this might be a weird question considering our history and everything, but would you like to have dinner with me sometime?" Nathan was surprisingly nervous, he had never gotten nervous when asking out a girl before.

"I would like that. Here is my number, give me a call whenever, I don't start work for another week." Brooke jotted down her cell phone number on a napkin and handed it to Nathan.

"I will give you a call soon." Brooke hoped it was soon, she couldn't wait to talk to him some more.

ooooOoooo

Later that week Brooke was doing some painting in her bedroom when her cell phone rang. "Hello."

"Brooke, it's Nathan." Brooke was taken by surprise that she felt a little flutter in her stomach when she heard his name.

"Hi Nathan, how's it going?"

"Really good actually, I really needed to relax and I have had time to do plenty of that. So, I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner with me tomorrow night?"

"Normally I would say no because you asked me on such short notice and I would be insulted because you wouldn't think that I didn't already have a date," Brooke rambled when she got nervous, "but since I don't know anybody here I have no plans so yes Nathan, I would love to have dinner with you."

"Great, I can pick you up around 8 if that is okay."

"That is fine with me." Brooke gave him directions and they hung up. She could already feel herself getting excited from the anticipation of spending time with him tomorrow night. She ran to her closet to see what she had to wear. Why was it that whenever something important came up she felt as though she had nothing to wear?

Brooke couldn't believe how nervous the prospect of a date with Nathan made her. They hadn't really been that close in high school, and honestly back then the thought of dating him had never crossed her mind. Nathan used to be this crazy bad boy who dated Peyton but then fell in love with his tutor Haley. They ended up getting married. That probably had a lot to do with why Brooke never thought to date him, he was always with one of her best friends.

Brooke knew that Nathan and Haley had divorced in the middle of their freshman year of college. Haley was fed up with school and wanted to pursue her dream of being a singer. She had gone on one tour during their junior year but returned the summer after. Her and Nathan had worked things out for while, but it never really was the same old Haley. She had had a taste of a bigger and better life and decided that that was what she wanted. Brooke still kept up with Haley, they talked regularly and whenever Haley was in town they would get together and catch up. However, Brooke had no idea what had happened with Nathan after they broke up. Surprisingly, she was excited to find out.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: **Thanks for the reviews! I am really enjoying this story. I hope you keep reading!

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Chapter 3- What's With the Butterflies?

Friday night came before Brooke knew it. It was already 6 o'clock and she had no idea what to wear. She stood in front of her packed full closet wondering what she had been thinking when she bought half of this stuff. She didn't want to wear anything she had in college, those clothes were a little too scandalous and she wanted Nathan to get to know the girl Brooke Davis has become, not remember the girl Brooke Davis used to be.

Two hours later Brooke was putting on the finishing touches. It might have taken her an hour to figure out what to wear, but it was well worth it. She finally settled on a pair of black capri pants and a purple silk halter top. The outfit was topped off with some devastatingly high stiletto strappy sandals. Usually she couldn't wear those shoes when she went out with guys because they made her so tall, but she knew that they didn't make a shoe that would bring her up to Nathan's height of 6'2".

A few minutes later Brook heard a knock on her front door, she yelled for Nathan to come in and told him to make himself at home, she would be ready in a few minutes. As she put on her lip gloss and gave herself one last look she wondered why she cared so much. This was Nathan, Lucas' brother. He had dated two of her best friends, even married one. Obviously he was only asking her out to dinner as friends, after all they knew no one else in town. But still, she couldn't get past the butterflies in her stomach.

When Brooke walked out into the living room Nathan was actually rendered speechless. Sure, Brooke had always been pretty, but wow, she really knocked his socks off now. She carried herself with a kind of self confidence that she never had before in high school. Nathan he never noticed it before but she had the most gorgeous smile of any woman he had ever laid eyes on. All he could think about was how soft her lips would be to kiss.

Nathan chastised himself in his head for his thoughts. This wasn't a date, it was just dinner with a friend. What was Nathan thinking? Brooke had had her heart broken multiple times by Lucas, why would she consider dating another Scott? "Brooke, you look great."

"Thanks. So where are we going for dinner?"

"Well I know of this great place that is right on the water, I thought that that would be nice, seeing as how it is a gorgeous night."

"That sounds nice, I do love this Florida weather." Brooke was secretly applauding herself for her choice on outfit, the expression on Nathan's face told her that it was definitely the right choice.

ooooOoooo

After a glass of wine Brooke was feeling a little bit more relaxed. "So Nathan, I hate to admit it but I really don't know what you have been up to since Haley and you divorced."

"Well, at first it was pretty rough. I couldn't do much besides sit and wallow. My grades dropped and I almost got kicked off the basketball team. Had that happened I would have lost my scholarship altogether." Nathan hated to remember how low he had sunk at that point in his life.

"What changed it? What made you start caring again?" Brooke knew how Nathan had felt, when she caught Lucas and Peyton together the last time she stopped caring about everything too.

"I actually remembered something that my father said. He used to always say that happiness doesn't come cheap. I realized that if I wanted to be happy then I had to go out and find it, it wasn't just going to come to me. So I threw myself into basketball. I was doing extra long workouts, extra runs, anything I could to take my mind of off losing Haley. I even studied more. And at some point, while I was trying to hard not to think about her, I didn't have to try anymore. It just went away. I thought about her less and less everyday. Then there came a day when I barely thought about her at all. It was on that day that I realized that I had fought like hell to get my own happiness back."

"Wow. That takes a lot of strength. I wish I could say that I snapped back from the whole Lucas thing that quickly but I didn't." Brooke could remember all the nights she spent alone crying over losing him. "I tried to blame Peyton about it for a while, and that kind of made me feel better, but the truth of the matter is that Lucas and I just weren't meant to be together. It wasn't anyone's fault, that is just the way it was."

"Do you still talk to Peyton?" Nathan was curious, he hadn't heard from Peyton in years.

"Yeah we are still just as close. She was at NYU for college and moved back to Tree Hill last week, right after she graduated. It got easier for us, friendship wise, once her and Lucas broke up for good."

"He told me about that. I was surprised that it ended that way, Jake coming back and her realizing that she was meant to be with him."

"Yeah well personally it felt good to know that Lucas was getting a taste of his own medicine." Brooke had to admit.

"So Jake and Peyton made it through all her years at NYU? I know that he stayed in Tree Hill and went to community college for 2 years and then onto UNC Greensboro."

"Yeah they worked it out. Peyton came home whenever she could, all of her Dad's frequent flyer miles finally paid off. As much as I know Peyton was glad she stuck it out at NYU I know that she couldn't wait to get back to Tree Hill and be with Jake and Jenny again." Brooke remembered talking to her friend while she was making the long drive from New York to North Carolina, she didn't stop for anything besides gas because she was so excited to be with Jake and Jenny again.

"Well I guess it is just the good life all around for all of us." Nathan was happy that all of his friends were so content with their lives after college.

"I don't know if I should ask, but I really want to know…how is Lucas?" Brooke bit her lip while she waited for Nathan's response.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note:** Thanks again for the great reviews, swedishblonde, mony19, and especially karaokediva419. Sorry that there weren't any updates over the weekend, I am usually pretty busy and don't get to it.

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Chapter 4- Ghosts From Year's Passed

"Oh my God, Nathan, never mind I asked that. I don't want you to think that I am spending time with you to like get back at him or to get dirt on him or anything. When I am nervous I just talk and talk and talk and don't always think about what comes out before I say it. And honestly I have been wondering all night and it just kind of burst out…" Brooke was yelling at herself in her head for asking that so soon, she swore to herself that she would learn to get a handle on this nervous rambling.

"Woah, calm down Brooke. It is okay, I knew that you would be curious, I didn't expect you to ask so soon, but whatever. I will fill you in on Lucas if you promise to answer me a question when I am done." Nathan figured that was the best way to get her to really open up about some things he was wondering about her.

"It's a deal." Brooke was relieved that Nathan wasn't looking at her like she was a crazy person, she definitely felt like one.

"Okay, well after we graduated high school Lucas couldn't figure out where to go to college. Because of the HCM basketball was long gone for him, and when he had applied to schools he applied to basketball schools. He had applied to Chapel Hill because he really liked their literature program, basketball didn't factor in to that choice, but they had wait listed him. He signed up for classes at community college but then Chapel Hill called him at the last minute and told him he had been taken off the wait list and could start in a few weeks. So he was at Chapel Hill all four years."

"Wow, that is an awesome school. Good thing he kept up on his grades even when he was on the team." Brooke was glad to hear this stuff, but what she really wanted to know was what had happened with his love life.

"So he graduated when we did, he had a double major in English and Philosophy with a concentration in literature. He is going on to get his master's at Chapel Hill, he wants to end up as a college professor in the end."

"He will be good at that, he always had a passion for reading. I know that he will love to share that passion with students." All Brooke could think was, hurry up and get to the good stuff.

"Well, I can tell by the blank expression in your eyes that that isn't what you really want to know. So onto his love life…" Nathan knew that that was what Brooke was really asking about, but he kind of enjoyed watching her squirm. "He was pretty broken up about the Peyton thing, but when it was all said and done he claimed that he wasn't that surprised. He knew that him and Peyton hooking up again was more about convenience, they were the only two left in Tree Hill that summer. He said that he knew he never had all of Peyton, that part of her belonged to Jake. It was still hard on him though."

"Well at least he finally learned how it felt to have your heart broken." Brooke just burst out, "Oops, I don't mean to sound mean, there is that not thinking before I say things thing again."

"It's okay. I know how it feels to have your heart broken. So, Lucas didn't date anyone seriously for his first two years of college, then he dated this one girl for a few months, but it just didn't work out. At the end of junior year he started dating this girl he had known throughout college but never really realized he had feelings for. They have been together every since."

"Well I hope that he is treating her right."

"Brooke, I promise you that Lucas learned his lesson, he treats her right. She isn't someone who would put up with anything less." Nathan was relieved to get all that out, he knew Brooke wanted to know it, now the explaining was done and he could get to some questions of his own.

"Well thanks for that Nathan. I am glad he is happy now. So what did you want to ask me?" Brooke was biting her lip nervously, there were some things she just didn't want to talk about.

"I am curious to know if you have had a serious relationship since Lucas? I know that you had a really tough time with all of that. Obviously, I know that you didn't have another serious relationship in high school, but what about college?" Nathan was sure Brooke had moved past it all, she probably had an amazing boyfriend right now or something.

"No, I haven't had a serious relationship since Lucas. I tired a few times in college, but I just had a hard time letting people in. After all the stuff that happened with Lucas and Felix, I just kind of shut my heart off. It was for the better though, I studied a lot and of course did cheerleading, so I just kept busy with all of that. I guess I figured the busier I was the less time I would think about wanting a boyfriend. After a few years I really didn't think about boys all that much." Brooke was almost embarrassed to admit this to Nathan. She had almost always been involved with someone in high school.

"I understand completely. I was the same way. Since Haley I haven't been able to let anyone in." Nathan felt bad for Brooke because he knew all about the heartache she had endured. "Who would have thought that you and I would be sitting here having this conversation?"

"Yeah, we definitely were two of the biggest heartbreakers at Tree Hill High weren't we? Sucks though doesn't it?"

"What?" Nathan could see all of this emotion behind Brooke's big brown eyes.

"When the heartbreakers become the broken hearted."

"Yeah it definitely does." Nathan looked thoughtful for a few minutes.

ooooOoooo

They finished up their meals and had coffee, afterwards Nathan drove Brooke home. When they arrived at her house he walked her to the front door, "Brooke, I have really enjoyed spending time with you tonight. I would really like to do this again sometime, hopefully sometime soon."

"I would love that Nathan, I had a really good time too." Brooke was glad he had had a good time and she really wanted to see him again.

"What is your schedule like next week?" Nathan hoped he didn't sound too eager.

"Well I start work on Monday…."

"How about I cook you dinner? It will help you relax after your first day. My mom is out of town for a few days so it would be just us, she has a gorgeous house with a pool and Jacuzzi and everything." Nathan hoped to persuade her.

"That sounds great." Brooke laughed to herself, he was trying so hard to talk her into it when she would have said yes in a second.

"Great, good, I'm glad. Why don't you give me a call sometime this weekend for directions?" Nathan was relieved that she had agreed.

"Okay, I will. Thanks again for dinner tonight, I had a great time."

"You are very welcome, I had a great time too." Nathan leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "See you Monday."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5- Anticipation

Saturday morning Brooke woke up with a huge smile on her face. All she could think about was how much fun she had last night with Nathan. She really was looking forward to seeing him on Monday. Thankfully she had a lot to do this weekend so Brooke knew that time would pass quickly.

Brooke started to get out of bed but realized she wasn't quite ready to stop basking in the glow from the night before. She reached over to her nightstand and grabbed her cell phone, she hit #1 on the speed dial.

"Hello."

"Good morning P. Sawyer. How is my favorite best friend this morning?" Brooke knew that Peyton wouldn't mind hearing about what was going on.

"Tired, Jenny wasn't feeling well last night and Jake had a job interview early this morning so I was up with her all last night." Peyton had leaped head first into the mother role when it came to Jenny. Peyton loved her with all her heart and the six year old girl loved her back. There had been a lot of drama surrounding Jake getting full custody of Jenny, but thankfully Jenny was only a baby and couldn't remember all of it. Peyton was the only mother Jenny had ever known.

"Well guess who I went out to dinner with last night? I'll tell you, Nathan." Brooke couldn't keep it in a second longer.

"Nathan as in Nathan Scott? Brother of Lucas Scott?" Peyton was shocked.

"Of course that Nathan."

"How did that happen?"

"Well, last week I went to grab a quick bite at McDonalds and Nathan walked in. His mother lives here now and he is staying with her for a little while until he has to start practice. Thing is I might like him. Did you know he will be playing for the Miami Heat?" Brooke tried to ramble right past the part she was afraid to admit.

"No I didn't know he was going to playing for the Miami Heat. And what was that part? You might like him?" Peyton knew her best friend all too well.

"Well here's the thing, I tried to convince myself that it wasn't a date, but then it felt like a date. I dressed like it was a date, which, by the way, Nathan seemed to love what I was wearing. We acted like it was a date, he walked me to the door afterwards, he kissed me goodnight. He is making me dinner on Monday night."

"He kissed you?" Peyton was still in shock. Of the people she went to high school with she never pegged Nathan and Brooke to get together.

"Yeah, just on the cheek. It was sweet. Thing is, now I can't stop thinking about him. I can't wait for Monday."

"Brooke, I have to run, Jenny just got up. But I am glad you are so happy. Just be careful, take things slow, I don't want to see you get hurt again."

"Neither do I. Go, take care of Jenny, I will talk to you again soon."

ooooOoooo

That same morning Nathan woke up early and went for a run. All he could think about was how amazing Brooke looked last night. He couldn't get the image of her out of his head. Nathan also couldn't get past how comfortable he felt while he was talking to her. He was a little nervous at first, but he really felt himself opening up towards the end of the date.

Date? It wasn't a date. Just two friends having dinner, Nathan tried to convince himself. Then again, a girl doesn't normally dress like that when it is just two friends having dinner. Wow, Nathan had to admit it to himself. He had gone on a date with Brooke Davis. Not only that, he had had a great time. All he could think about was seeing her on Monday.

ooooOoooo

Monday morning Brooke woke up extra early. She went for a quick run around her neighborhood and came home and jumped in the shower. Picking out her outfit for that day was key. It was really important that she made the right first impression on her first day at work. After long deliberation she decided on her red skirt suit. Not only was the suit professional, but red was definitely her color. She felt like the suit was the best choice, after all, Zodiac sold upscale women's clothes. They were trendy, but professional.

As she was getting dressed her thoughts drifted to Nathan. She was boiling over with anticipation, not only for her new job but also for her date with Nathan. Brooke figured she might not want to wear her work suit all night so she threw some jeans and a cute tank top into a duffle bag. On a whim she tossed her bathing suit in as well, Nathan had mentioned he had a Jacuzzi.

Brooke finished getting ready, threw on her black stilettos and grabbed her black purse. When she looked in the mirror she saw a young professional looking back. She smiled to herself, she knew this was going to be a day to remember.

ooooOoooo

Brooke's first day at work was going so fast. Before she knew it she was out to lunch with her new boss. Within one minute of walking into Zodiac's offices she knew that the suit had been the right choice. Everyone was dressed very professionally, and Brooke fit right in.

Allison, Brooke's boss, was only a few years older than Brooke and really easy to get along with. Allison explained that her and Brooke would work side by side. The company's policies were pretty lax, as long as you got your work done you could pretty much come and go as you pleased. Brooke was relieved to hear this. She liked having a little bit of freedom.

Throughout lunch Allison was telling Brooke about all the perks of the job. There was a lot of opportunity to travel and attend fashion shows and seminars. While the researching of the hottest trends was the biggest part of the job it sounded like it would be research Brooke would thoroughly enjoy. Of course the employee discount wouldn't be all that bad either. Each employee got one free outfit the beginning of every new season and anything else they wanted was 50 off, now that was a perk Brooke could adjust to very easily.

Brooke and Allison finished lunch and headed back to the office. On the way back Brooke checked her cell phone and saw she had a text message from Nathan, 'Can't wait to see you tonight.' The message alone gave her tingles, she couldn't wait to see him.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's note:** Thanks for reading and for the reviews. I would like to see more reviews, this is my first story on here and I would love for people to see it. So if you like what you see please let me know by reviewing, and spread the word. A special thanks to karaokediva419 for putting in a plug for me, her story Reacquainted really inspired me to write this story. This chapter is kind of short but I promise that it is setting up a really great next chapter.

Chapter 6- Dinner and Dreams

Walking up to Nathan's door Brooke could feel the butterflies in her stomach. She wondered what it was about Nathan that made her feel this way. Figuring it was just anticipation that had been building all day she knocked on the door.

The second Nathan answered the door and Brooke looked into those blue eyes she knew it wasn't just anticipation that was causing her butterflies, she knew she was really starting to like Nathan. "Wow, Brooke, you look amazing." Nathan could barely get his words out.

"Well thanks, red always was my color."

"It definitely is. You look so professional." Nathan kept telling himself to just calm down and breathe, but with all honesty, Brooke Davis had managed to take his breathe away.

"So am I going to have to stand here looking at all hot or are you going to invite me in?" Brooke knew she had to stay cool and not let him know how interested she was.

"Yeah, sorry, come on in."

"Wow, this place is incredible. And whatever you are cooking smells amazing, I am starving."

"Good, because I have been slaving over a hot stove for hours. Come on in and have a seat." They head towards the table and Nathan hurries ahead of Brooke and pulls out the chair for her. "I hope you like filet mignon."

"Yeah, I am one girl who always enjoys her beef." Brooke said with that sultry smile of hers.

"Glad to hear it." Nathan had to laugh under his breath, he wondered if Brooke knew just how sexy she was when she smiled like that. Nathan's guess was that she definitely did. "I made some mashed potatoes and caesar salad as well."

"That sounds perfect." Brooke thought it was adorable that Nathan had gone to so much trouble to prepare a nice dinner.

oooOoooo

A little bit into dinner Nathan decided to break the silence. He was thankful it hadn't been awkward silence. He had been enjoying just sitting there with Brooke, eating and drinking wine. "So how was your first day?"

"It was great. My boss is awesome. She took me out to lunch and was telling me about all the perks of the job, discounts and traveling on the company's credit card. Those are definitely things that I can adjust to. I think I am going to like it there."

"That is great. So is this what you want to do long term?" Nathan hoped Brooke had bigger dreams. The Brooke he knew in high school sometimes settled, but Brooke seemed like she had changed, and had so much more confidence in herself. Nathan really hoped she would push herself to do great things.

"No. I want to end up owning my own store where I sell clothes and things that I design. I figured I had to take small steps. It seemed like this job would get me a good feel for the industry. It seems like I will learn a lot and make a lot of really good contacts." Just talking about her dreams made Brooke excited.

"That is great Brooke. I know you can do it."

"Sometimes I doubt myself, I think maybe I am reaching too high or something. Maybe this is just a dream and not something I can make a reality." Brooke hated to admit it but sometimes she feared she wouldn't be able to make this dream come true.

"Brooke, the first thing you can do it believe in yourself. If you do that, the rest will all work out."

"Peyton used to always tell me to believe in myself. She said I never had enough faith in my abilities. I always thought of that in college when I thought I couldn't pass a test or a succeed in a class."

"See and it worked. You made it through school, you have a great job, and your own house. Things seem like they are definitely going your way." Nathan was surprised but he was actually really proud of Brooke for coming so far on her own. She was far from that heartbroken and weak girl who slept on his couch for months.

"So what about you? Basketball? Is that what you want to do long term?"

"Yeah. I love it. I don't get a rush out of anything else like I do playing basketball. I want to play for as long as I possibly can. I mean, I get a rush just thinking about playing for the Heat. It is going to be incredible."

"I always knew you would go pro. Wow, just think of all those cheerleaders. That will be quite the party!" Brooke decided the dinner needed a little lightening up.

ooooOoooo

A little later, after an hour more of talking and drinking wine, Nathan decided it was time to heat things up a little bit. "Brooke, do you want to check out my mom's Jacuzzi?"

"Haha, I thought you would never ask. I brought my bathing suit just in case. Let me run out to the car and get it." Brooke knew that if she hadn't won Nathan over yet that her little red bikini would definitely do that trick.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's note: **Thanks to everyone who reviewed…I really appreciate you reading and giving me feedback, so keep them coming! I worked really hard on this chapter to I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 7- Things Aren't Always What They Seem

"There should be bathrobe hanging on the back of the door." Nathan yelled to Brooke as she was changing in the bathroom.

"Thanks, but I'm fine." Nathan turned around to see Brooke standing there in a very tiny red bikini.

"Um yeah, you are fine. I mean, good, I just wanted to make sure you didn't need anything." Nathan was definitely not applauding himself on staying cool. Brooke literally tore the words right out of his mouth. He had seen Brooke in a bathing suit before, but that was years ago. Brooke was curvier now, and without a doubt looking absolutely fine in that bikini.

"Come on Scott, pick your jaw up off the floor and get out here, I don't know how to work this thing." Brooke teased. She had no doubt that her bathing suit had had just the right affect on Nathan.

Nathan came out and fired up the jets took of his shirt and then hopped into the Jacuzzi with Brooke. "I haven't found a house yet in Miami but I do know that it needs to have one of these."

"Yeah, this feels great, just what I needed after a long hard day at work." Brooke was still in awe of that sight of Nathan without his shirt on. Brooke had seen this sight plenty of times before, it seemed like whenever he was at his and Haley's apartment he never had a shirt on, but those years of college basketball really paid off. Nathan was absolutely ripped, she thought that nothing could be hotter than his washboard abs but then she looked up and saw his chest and it was in fact better.

"And the best part," Nathan reached out of the Jacuzzi, "This little fridge that is built in to the side. Would you like another glass of wine?"

"Now Mr. Scott, are you trying to get me drunk?" Brooke asked playfully.

"Maybe, is it working?"

"Yeah, it is definitely starting to. But what the hell, I will have one more glass. But then I am cut off, remember some of us have to work tomorrow." Brooke knew one more glass wouldn't put her over the edge, and if she stopped after that she would be fine in an hour or two to drive home.

"I just want to say Brooke that I have really enjoyed spending time with you." Nathan decided it was now or never to let Brooke know he really felt.

"Me too, you are turning out to be a really great friend to me Nate, the only friend I have here." Brooke wasn't about to burst out that she wanted much more than to just be friends with Nathan.

"Friends, yeah." Nathan took a long drink of his wine. "Brooke, I don't want to just be your friend. Maybe I have made it seem that way, but it isn't. You have turned into this amazing woman, and honestly, I can't get enough of you. I kept trying to convince myself that these dinners were just dinners, with a friend, but the feelings that I am getting are not feelings that I normally get from someone who I am just friends with."

"Wow. I definitely wasn't expecting that." Brooke didn't know what to say.

"Sorry, I don't want to screw things up with us, but I don't want to hide it either. I am falling for you Brooke, even if you aren't falling for me, and I had to tell you." Nathan seemed a little disappointed, maybe he was reading Brooke all wrong.

"I am."

"You are what?"

"Falling for you. I have been thinking about it all weekend. I definitely have feelings for you, and not just friend feelings." Brooke decided if he was brave enough to say it she could be too.

"Now there is the response I was looking for." Nathan leaned in and kissed Brooke lightly on the lips, she grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled him closer. She slowly opened her mouth and Nathan followed, she started lightly massaging his tongue. This went on for a few minutes until things started to get heated and Nathan pulled away.

"What's wrong?" Brooke wondered.

"I just don't want to take this too fast Brooke. I know your history, I know that you have had a lot of guys who were interested in you just because of your body, guys who were just looking to get a piece. I need you to know that this isn't about all of that. I want to know everything about you Brooke. I want to be with you, not just sleep with you." Nathan hoped Brooke didn't think that all of this was cheesy, but he had to let her know how he felt.

"Good, I'm glad. I don't want it to just be about sex either." Brooke was almost relieved to here him say that.

"If you feel that way why do you have a confused look on your face?"

"It's just that no one has ever treated me this way. No one has ever respected me that much to say hey, let's take it slow. It is a first for me for a boy to stop kissing me because sex isn't the only thing on his mind." Brooke was thinking of the endless boys who had thought of nothing else besides taking her clothes off.

"Yeah well get ready for a lot of firsts Brooke because I promise, I won't treat you like those other guys. So let's just take it slow, one step at a time."

"Okay." Brooke said as she slid over to straddle Nathan, she looked him right in the eyes, "One step at a time sounds perfect to me." Brooke kissed him again and then wrapped her arms around his neck and lay her head on his shoulder. Nathan took her lead and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"This right here, right now, is definitely enough for me."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8- Hello, Goodbye

Wednesday afternoon while Brooke was walking to her car after work she saw that she had missed 3 calls from Peyton. She frantically dialed her best friend hoping that everything was ok. When Peyton picked up, before she could even say hello, Brooke burst out, "Oh my God, Peyton, is everything okay?"

"Yeah Brooke, everything is fine. Why wouldn't it be?" Peyton figured she string Brooke along a little longer. She had to admit, it was sometimes funny to hear Brooke flip out.

"Because you called me three times, I was freaking out, I thought something was wrong."

"No, everything is fine. I called you three times because I have really good news and I couldn't wait to tell you." Peyton would only make Brooke squirm a few minutes more.

"Peyton Elizabeth Sawyer, why are you doing this to me, you know I hate waiting! What is this good news?" Brooke hated it when Peyton did this to her.

"I am coming to visit you. Jake wanted to thank me for helping out with Jenny so much while he was interviewing for jobs, and now he found a job so he wants to treat me to a long weekend away before he starts."

"P. Sawyer, that is great news. When are you coming?" Brooke was so excited. She and Peyton hadn't had any serious girl time together in a long, long time. She was already thinking of all the things they would do.

"Tomorrow night. I remembered you telling me that you only had to go into work for a few hours on Friday mornings so I figured then we could spend the rest of the day together, and then the whole weekend. My flight back leaves late Sunday night so I will be back before Jake starts work on Monday." Peyton was relieved that she had a schedule that allowed her to take spontaneous trips like this. Karen, Lucas' mom, had surprised Peyton after graduation saying that she wanted Peyton to run TRIC for Karen so that Karen could start going full time to school so she could finally finish her degree. Karen had been going part time for years but finally wanted to just get it done. Peyton had been pretty involved with TRIC after it opened, finding bands to play and helping run an all ages night, but now Karen wanted Peyton to do it all. It was perfect for Peyton, because this way she could pursue her dreams as an artist part time.

"Awww, P. Sawyer, this is awesome. I can't wait. What time does your flight land tomorrow night?" Brooke could barely contain herself. She could not wait to spend time with Peyton. She also knew that Peyton needed some time away from everything, as much as she loved Jenny it sometimes overwhelmed her.

"My plane lands at 7. This isn't too short of notice is it Brooke?"

"Absolutely not, you are always welcome here Peyton. Seriously, you can just show up and I won't care." Brooke could always make time for her best friend, no matter what was going on in her life.

"Great. Well, I have to go and get packed. I am taking Jake out to dinner to celebrate his new job. So, I will see you tomorrow."

"Yep, tomorrow. I can't wait."

ooooOoooo

By the time Brooke was off the phone with Peyton she was almost home. She was so happy to see Nathan pulling into her drive way when she drove onto her street. He had called her to say he would pick up some chinese food and meet Brooke at home with it. This would be the first time that they were spending time together since they had their talk about what they both wanted.

"Hey there hot stuff." Brook said to Nathan as she got out of her car. "I hope you got a lot of egg rolls, those are my favorite."

"Mine too, you better be ready to fight me for them." Nathan walked up to Brooke and kissed her. "So how was your day?"

"Fine, I am still learning the ropes, but things are still going great." Brooke unlocked the door to her house, "Sorry about the boxes, I still haven't gotten all unpacked. And one more thing, I don't have a kitchen table yet."

"That's okay, as long as I am with you I will be happy even if I have to eat off the floor. Although, I do hope that you have plates." Nathan teased.

"Of course I have plates." Brooke walked towards the kitchen to dig out some plates, "But I don't have any silverware so I hope you can handle your chopsticks." Brooke teased as she reached into the fridge to grab a couple of beers. She tossed one to Nathan.

"Oh don't worry about that, I have skills with chop sticks that you have never seen." Nathan had to pause for a second after he caught his beer. This felt so comfortable. There wasn't any of the awkwardness that he usually felt when he was first dating a girl.

"So, I got some great news on my way home from work." Brooke couldn't wait to share her news.

"What?"

"Peyton is coming to visit! She is flying in tomorrow night and she will be here until Sunday night." Just saying it made Brooke get all excited again.

"That's great. I know how much you must miss her. What are you guys going to do?" Nathan was relieved that he and Peyton had worked out any weirdness between them years ago, he didn't want to have to go all weekend without seeing Brooke at all.

"Shop, definitely shop. We will probably head to the beach one day. Oh, and of course, there will be a lot of girl talk." There was a long list of things in Brooke's head that she wanted to cram into this weekend.

"Well, I would like to do something with the two of you, if that is okay. I haven't seen Peyton since probably this past Christmas." Nathan figured that Brooke had already told Peyton what was going on between them, and he really hoped there wouldn't be any weirdness. Sure, Nathan had dated Peyton years ago, but since that time he has been married and divorced. He figured it would all be fine.

"Definitely. I would love for the three of us to spend time together. You should come to the beach with us. This weekend is supposed to be super hot." Brooke was glad that he was so willing to spend time with the two girls.

"Brooke, trust me, you don't have to try and talk me into this. Spending the day with you in a bikini, I'll be there."

"Good, I am glad to hear it. If you liked that red one you should see what else I have. So, onto another topic, what did you do today?" Brooke was a little jealous that Nathan had all the time in the world to lay around and relax.

"Well I was looking through real estate listings, trying to find a place in Miami."

"I keep forgetting that you will be moving there. Did you have any luck?" Brooke didn't want to think about him leaving, at least they could spend plenty of time together up until then.

"Yeah, I found a couple of places that looked good. I will probably head there next weekend to see them in person. I would love it if you would come with me."

"Definitely." A weekend away with Nathan, how could Brooke resist?

"Great. I will probably have to live out of a hotel for a little while though, that will suck. It doesn't look like I would be able to close on a house quick enough to move right in." Nathan had been dreading what he was about to say next.

Brooke was a little concerned, she figured he would be here for at least a month, her closing had taken only taken a little bit over a month. "Why, when do you leave?"

"I start pre-season training in two and half weeks." Nathan hated the fact that he was going to have to leave so soon, but he had signed a contract and there wasn't anything he could do.

"Wow, two and a half weeks. That is really soon." Brooke wondered how she would be able to say goodbye to Nathan, she was already starting to feel attached.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9- Girl Talk

Brooke could not believe the traffic on the way to the airport. Traffic at rush hour in Tampa was always terrible but she figured that by 7:00 things would have cleared up, she was clearly wrong. She was so excited to see her best friend and she wanted to make sure that she was waiting there for her when she got off the plane but she wasn't ever going to get anywhere at this rate. Brooke turned up her music louder, trying to block out the beeping from all of the other cars, it was doing nothing but making her more anxious.

Brooke tried to sing along to the music and let that drown out her thoughts, but it was impossible. All she could think about was what Nathan had said last night, "Two and a half weeks." Nathan would be gone in two and half weeks. Sure, he would only be two hours away, and they could visit each other almost every weekend, but what about when he started playing games? He would be gone most weekends. What would they do then?

What am I doing? Brooke had to stop herself. Who was to say that she and Nathan would even make it to the point where they had to worry about a long distance relationship? After all, he knew that he wasn't going to be here for that long and he still let something happen between them. Maybe everything he was saying was lies. Why would Nathan be different? Why would he want a relationship with her? He was probably just lying to get into her pants. Brooke felt stupid for even beginning to trust Nathan, for even beginning to let him in. Nathan was guy, just like all the rest. So what if Haley had changed him? Brooke knew how he was before and when things ended with Haley he probably went right back to the bad boy he used to be.

The CD Brooke had playing started skipping and ripped her out of her thoughtful state. Good thing, she was coming up on the exit for the airport. She put on her blinker and as she drove onto the exit the forced everything that had to do with Nathan out of her mind. Brooke wanted to focus on seeing her best friend and how happy that made her, now wasn't the time to sit there and worry about things with Nathan. She would have plenty of time to worry about that after Peyton went back to Tree Hill.

ooooOoooo

As soon as Brooke spotted that blonde curly hair bobbing up and down from somewhere deep in the crowd of people she ran towards it. Peyton saw Brooke running towards her and broke out into a run herself. It had been months since the two friends had been together. They stood in the middle of the airport hugging for what seemed like ever. When Brooke saw Peyton she knew that she needed her best friend right now. She knew that Peyton would help her through it.

"P. Sawyer, you look amazing. Jake certainly is doing a good job of pleasing you, you are glowing!" Peyton really did look great. It was obvious that she was in love and that Tree Hill, with Jake and Jenny, was right where she needed to be.

"Thanks B. Davis! Look at you, all professional in your suit. I have never seen you like this." Brooke looked much older than her 22 years in the navy pinstripe suit.

"Aw thanks, you're the best for saying that. So how was your flight?"

"It was fine. I flew out of Charlotte so I was able to get a direct flight. It was only like 2 hours, not bad at all." Jake had thought of everything, he wanted Peyton to be comfortable and really enjoy this trip.

"So, the first order of business…we have to get some food. I am starving! I ate lunch hours ago."

"Okay, let's go get some food." Some things would never change, Peyton thought, Brooke was always starving. It was a wonder that she managed to stay so thin with the way she ate. Not that Peyton could talk though, at least Brooke ran every now and then, Peyton did absolutely no exercise and stayed rail thin.

The two friends headed towards the baggage claim arm in arm, both thrilled at the thought of having the next few days together.

ooooOoooo

"So, how are things with Jake?" Brooke asked as they were eating their salads, awaiting their meals.

"They are great. He has been pretty stressed out these past few weeks trying to find a job, but now that he has found one he has been able to relax. I will admit though, it was better being with him stressed than not being with him at all." Peyton had known for a long time that she belonged wherever Jake and Jenny were. She had only ever been truly happy with life when she was with the two of them.

"Good for you. I know how happy he makes you, I am glad that you can be with him everyday."

"Okay, so I have been dying to know, fill me in on the whole Nathan situation." Peyton couldn't wait a second longer.

"There really isn't much to tell. He is just like every other guy, trying to get in my pants." Brooke got angry even thinking about it again.

"What? I definitely did not think that that was what you were going to say. What happened? I thought that you couldn't stop thinking about him and you had a really good time with him?" Peyton had cautioned Brooke to not be hurt, but she certainly never expected this to happen. Nathan wasn't just like every other guy.

"Well, things were going great. We had finally talked about it and admitted to each other that we had feelings for one another. So we have this whole long talk and he tells me that it isn't just about sex for him, he wants to take it slow because he wants to be with me completely. Then a few nights later he tells me that he is moving to Miami in a few weeks. I mean, I knew that that part was looming, but I figured with the way things were happening that he was going to be here longer. So then I figured that if he knew he wasn't going to be here longer then he must have been just jerking me around, saying all that stuff so I would trust him and then he could sleep with me." Hearing herself say it out loud, Brooke knew that maybe she was jumping to a few conclusions.

"Come on Brooke. I don't believe any of that. I think that you really like him and you are scared because he really likes you, and because of that you know that with him leaving things are going to take a lot more work. You are going to have to really trust him and I think that that scares you. I know that Nathan used to be a bad guy, but he isn't anymore, Haley really changed him."

"Yeah well maybe he went back to his old self." Brooke wasn't ready to give in yet.

"You don't believe that any more than I do and you know it. You are going to have to let your guard down on this one Brooke. If you really feel for him you need to find a way to work through this. After all, he will just be in Miami. If Jake and I could find a way to make things work when he was 11 hours away you and Nathan can find a way to make things work with 2 hours in between you." Peyton wasn't going to let Brooke off easy. She could tell that she had real feelings for Nathan, she wasn't about to let her walk away from it because things had worked out badly for her in the past.

"I just wonder why Nathan has let anything happen between us when he knew that he wouldn't be here long." The anger Brooke felt started to melt away and through that came her true feeling on the situation. "I don't think he is that bad guy he once was, but I just don't get why he would let all this happen."

"I don't think that Nathan planned it Brooke. You didn't either. It just happened. You can't stop yourself from having feelings for him."

"Yeah, but what if he doesn't really have these feelings for me?" Brooke hated to even think about that, she hated to think about Nathan saying the things that he said and not meaning it.

"I don't have much to go on besides what you have told me, but I really don't think that that is the case. What can I do to help you figure it out Brooke?" Peyton was willing to do just about anything to make sure her best friend wasn't hurt by yet another guy.

"Well, Nathan had said that he wanted to do something with you and me. I was thinking about taking you to the beach tomorrow, so what if he came along with us? Then you could see how he acts towards me and everything. You have dated him, and seen him with Haley, maybe you will be able to tell if he really likes me."

"Now that is something that I can definitely do for you Brooke. So call Nathan and see if he is up for a day with the two of us." Peyton was relieved that she could help.

"Okay, I will. Thanks for this P. Sawyer." Brooke grabbed her friend's hand, "You have always been there for me and I really appreciate it."

"That is what a best friend is for. And if it is any consolation, you will be fine Brooke. I have the strangest feeling that your problem days with boys may be coming to an end."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10- Three's Company

The next morning Brooke was in the shower when the doorbell rang. Peyton ran to open the door knowing that she would see one of her oldest friends standing on the other side. As she opened the door and saw Nathan standing there she jumped into his arms. "Nathan, I have missed you so much." Peyton had dated Nathan once upon a time and their friendship after that was a little strained. But, they had one night that changed it all. There had been this Boy Toy Auction at Tree Hill High their junior year of high school. Nathan had been dating Haley but Peyton had "won" Nathan for the night because Haley wanted to spend time with Lucas. Lucas and Haley had been best friends for years but hadn't spent much time together so Haley wanted to have an entire night doing the stuff that they used to do together. When Nathan walked up on stage and Haley saw the girls in the crowd go crazy she begged Peyton to buy Nathan. That night Peyton and Nathan began getting their friendship back on track.

"I missed you too Peyton." Nathan started to pull away from the hug, "It has been a while hasn't it?"

"Yeah, I don't think we have seen each other since Christmas." Peyton had run into Nathan at the mall during their Christmas break and grabbed lunch together. "How are you Nathan?"

"I'm good, I have had the past few weeks off to relax. I really needed it so I am feeling great." Nathan was pretty sure the question that Peyton really wanted to ask. "How have you been?"

"Good. I am so happy to be back in Tree Hill with Jake and Jenny. Can I ask you a question Nathan?"

"Sure, anything." Nathan knew what she was going to say.

"What is going on with you and Brooke? She is freaking out because she can't understand why you would start something with her when you weren't going to be here for that long."

"I know that this has been bothering Brooke, it was quite obvious that she upset when I told her that I had to leave in a few weeks. But if it is okay with you Peyton, I would really rather discuss this with Brooke myself." Nathan wanted to do this right, he and Brooke had to learn to talk to each other about important things.

"Yeah, that's fine. I just don't want her to get hurt, ya know?"

"I do know. And I will tell you this much, I am not in this just to sleep with her. I do genuinely have feelings for her." Nathan had to give in to Peyton a little, after all she was only looking out for Brooke. "I will talk to her about it soon. I didn't plan on saying anything until after you left because I wanted this weekend to be nothing but fun for the two of you, but she asked me about it and I couldn't lie. I plan to talk to her about it once you leave, until then I just want her to have a good weekend."

"I'm with you on that. I am sure between the two of us we can see that that happens." Peyton was relieved to hear him admit that he did really care about Brooke. She would let her know that much so she could relax and have some fun this weekend.

"Speaking of Brooke, where is she?"

"In the shower. She is the only person I know who showers before she goes to the beach. She is going to get all sandy and dirty anyways." Peyton loved Brooke's little quirks.

"Yeah well that is Brooke for you, she can never do anything, or not do something, just because everyone else is."

"Hey, no fair talking about me behind my back." Brooke walked out of the bathroom in a towel.

"Hey beautiful." Nathan walked towards her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Peyton and I were just catching up on things and I asked where you were."

"Oh, how cute, you missed me. Hey, P. Sawyer, come help me pick out an outfit." Brooke of course had planned out down to her shoes what she was going to wear, but she wanted to see if Peyton had asked Nathan anything yet.

"Okay, we'll be right back." She looked at Nathan, it was obvious he knew what was going on.

The second they were in Brooke's bedroom with the door shut she wipped off her towel to start getting dressed, "Ok, spill. What did he say?"

"Well, he said that he really wanted to talk to you about everything before anyone else, but he wanted you to be able to relax and enjoy the weekend so he did tell me a little somethin somethin."

"Best friend, don't leave me hanging!" Brook yelped as she pulled on a halter top and khaki skirt over her bathing suit.

"He said that he really does like you, it really isn't about getting a piece. Now, knowing that can you please relax and enjoy this weekend?"

"Yes, I can, thank you. I guess we can talk about the rest later." Brooke threw some sunscreen and lip gloss into her beach bag, "So, how do I look?"

"Like the textbook definition of a bathing beauty." Brooke always dressed perfectly for every occasion.

"Good answer, now lets go."

ooooOoooo

A few hours later Peyton was just about to doze off while lying on the beach when she propped herself up on her elbows and looked out at the water. She had to laugh at what she saw, Nathan was chasing Brooke through the water splashing water in her face. Brooke gave Nathan an angry look and charged at him, he knew what was coming and grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder. Brook had a shocked look on his face and Peyton could hear her yelling for Nathan to put her down. Next thing Peyton knew, Nathan flipped Brooke right over and into the water. When Brooke surfaced she ran over to him, jumped on him and kissed him. Peyton had to laugh, they were absolutely adorable together.

A few minutes later Nathan and Brooke walked towards Peyton holding hands. "So best friend, are you hungry?"

"Yeah, I definitely am, what time is it?"

"It is almost 5. I know a really good place that we could go and have some drinks and grab some dinner." Brooke thought that some drinks were definitely needed to get their night off to the perfect start.

"Sounds great, lets go."

ooooOoooo

Later that night, after finishing up a fabulous dinner of burgers and fries, the three friends were sitting back enjoying some drinks on the outside bar patio of the restaurant they were at. They were clearly enjoying each other's company, there was lots of laughing and plenty of teasing.

"I hate to be the one to break through all this fun, but Nathan, I really want to ask you a question." Peyton started.

"Sure, what's up?" Nathan felt comfortable talking about most anything but Haley. He had moved on completely from her, but it was always painful for him to talk about her.

"Brooke told me that your mom moved down here to get away from Dan, so I was just wondering how things were with you and Dan?" Peyton hoped that this didn't anger Nathan, his father was always a really touchy subject. Dan had always bothered Nathan, pushing him to be the best at everything while at the same time making him feel like he was never good enough. Peyton knew of Nathan's struggles with his father and she was curious to know if those had eased through the years.

"Well, thing started to get better when I first went off to school. I was still dealing with a lot so I wasn't really on top of my game. He loved it because that meant that he had finally done something better than me. But then when I got my life back together and started working harder and playing harder my game got a lot better. Actually, I was playing better than I ever had in my life. Things started to get a lot worse after that. He would always call me after a game and tell me about all the things I had done wrong. Finally it got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore, so I changed my cell phone number. At that point I was living in an apartment with a buddy off campus so that was the only phone I had. I changed my e-mail address, I did everything I could so that he couldn't get to me. I put in a formal request that my address and any other information not be given to anyone, including family members. My mom was already trying to move away so I knew I could give her my number and stuff knowing that she wouldn't give it to him. I haven't heard from him since then, and that was back in sophomore year of college." A pained look formed on his face as he told the story. It was clearly difficult for him to talk about.

Brooke saw the look of pain on Nathan's face and reached for his hand. It was right at that moment that all three of them knew that Brooke and Nathan would find a way to work it all out.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11- One Step at a Time

Brooke was sitting at work Monday afternoon thinking about how bummed she was. She had had an awesome weekend with Peyton, but now she was gone and Brooke didn't know when she would get to see her again. With Peyton gone Brooke had all the time in the world to think about Nathan leaving. She was meeting him in a few hours for dinner and she knew that that was what they would be discussing.

After a few more minutes of brooding Brooke decided that this wasn't how she wanted it to be. She didn't want to sit there all sad. Brooke had spent far too many years being sad about boys, even being sad about Scott boys, she didn't want to go back to that again. She looked at the clock and realized that if she could finish up two more articles she would be done with all her work for the day and she could skip out a few hours early and go shopping. That would definitely put her in a better mood.

ooooOoooo

Hours later armed with quite a few shopping bags Brooke made her way to her car. She found quite a few good buys on suits that she needed for work. And of course she found a new outfit to wear for tonight. She had ducked into the bathroom right before she left to put on the pink strapless sundress and matching shoes. Looking in the mirror she applauded herself for her new purchase as she touched up her makeup. She knew that a few more outfits like and Nathan would be kicking himself for having to leave.

ooooOoooo

Nathan was already waiting at the restaurant when Brooke walked up. As soon as he saw her he felt a flutter in his stomach. He wondered how she did this to him, just the sight of her turned his knees weak. He never in a million years thought that is would be Brooke Davis of all people who would turn his world upside down. "You look beautiful." Nathan told Brooke as she approached him.

"Thanks, you don't looks so bad yourself." Brooke loved that Nathan knew how to dress in different situations. She hated the guys who thought that sneakers were appropriate to where everywhere, Nathan certainly wasn't one of them. They were eating at a pretty casual restaurant that had an outside patio, as so many places in Florida did, and Nathan was dressed perfectly in khakis, a baby blue polo that brought out the gorgeous blue of his eyes, and some nice leather flip flops. Brooke had to laugh about this to herself, she could remember back in the day when all Nathan wore were basketball shoes or Timberlands, he definitely had done some growing up.

"They don't take reservations here so I put our name on the list and they said it should be no more than half an hour. Do you want to grab a drink at the bar while we wait?"

"Definitely, I am dying for a margarita."

A few minutes later, with drinks in hand, Brooke and Nathan headed towards a little waiting areas out on the patio, it looked over a lake and was absolutely gorgeous. Nathan looked at Brooke, thinking of what to say, but became mesmerized by how beautiful she looked sitting there with her hair blowing in the wind. After a few minutes he was able to find his words, "So, I think that we need to talk."

"Yeah, we definitely do. I am sorry that I got all freaked out and quiet when you told me how soon you were leaving, I was just really surprised." Brooke was relieved that she was able to stay quiet after he told her, instead of unleashing some of her senseless babbling.

"I understand. I hadn't wanted to tell you that way, but you asked how soon I left and I didn't want to lie to you. I don't want to keep things from you Brooke, and I want us to be able to talk about stuff like this, no matter how hard it is." Nathan wasn't going to let her out of this conversation until they had it all worked out.

"I appreciate you saying that, and I want that to, but you have to realize that my track record isn't great with trusting guys. Because of that I have a habit of just pleading the fifth. It is easier than letting people in." Brooke knew that she had to let Nathan know that this was hard for her.

"I know that you have had problems in the past and that is why it is so important to me to do it this way, talking about everything. I want you to trust me so badly, I don't want you to be scared that I will hurt you. I swear to you that I will try my best to not hurt you Brooke, sometimes things happen, like this move, that might hurt you, but I promise that I will try to avoid it at all costs."

"I know you will, but it is nice to hear you say it. I promise that I am really trying to let you in, so that being said, lets talk about this move."

Just as Nathan went to say something they hostess came over to take them to their table. They placed their appetizer and entrée orders and the Nathan started in again, "So this move, in about two weeks. I don't want that to be the end of this Brooke. I know that it is still new but it is amazing. I wasn't expecting something like this, and especially with you. We have known each other for years and the thought of us never even crossed my mind before, but you are this amazing woman and I fell for you without even really knowing it was happening. But it has and I don't want it to end. I want us to find a way to work through this."

"Wow. Nathan, I think that you are amazing too. And I love what has been happening between us. But how can we make it work? It isn't like you have a constant schedule like I do, with weekends off. What about when you start games? Then it will be really hard to see each other?" Brooke was glad to hear he wanted to make it work but she didn't know how it possibly could.

"Okay, well how about we deal with it one step at a time? I won't start games until pre season in October. So that is four whole months away. Until then I will just have practices during the week. We have weekends off until games start, and we are usually done early on Fridays, just like you. Miami is only like 2 hours away, so it won't be a bad drive to see each other for the weekend. What if we just see how that works out?"

"That sounds good. I can handle that. We already don't see one another that much during the week because of me working, so this wouldn't be too much of a change." Brooke was starting to feel hopeful again. Nathan really wanted this to work. He had clearly already though about it. She was thrilled, she wasn't ready for this to be over.

"Well, thankfully that is still a few weeks away, until then I want to spend as much time with you as possible. Are we still on for Miami this weekend?" Nathan knew that an entire weekend with Brooke would be amazing, he wanted to start on the details of the trip as soon as possible.

"Yeah, I definitely want to go. I have heard awesome things about Miami, it is supposed to have a great night life." Brooke knew that her and Nathan would have a blast there no matter what they did.

"Yeah, I have heard that too. I will talk to my agent and find out where the hot spots are. I will make all of the arrangements."

"Just let me know when you book the hotel how much it will be, I will give you half." Brooke didn't want to make Nathan pay for the whole weekend.

"Absolutely not. This weekend is on me." Nathan wanted to give Brooke the kind of weekend she deserved, one fit for a queen.

"No way, that will be too expensive." Brooke felt a little guilty about Nathan paying for everything.

"Brooke, think about it, I have a contract with the NBA. I am not hurting for cash, not at all. I only have one question." Nathan didn't want to rub his money in her face, but he did want her to realize that he could treat her to things like this and she didn't have to worry about his wallet.

"Sure, anything?"

"Do you want me to get a room with one bed or two?"


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's note: **I just wanted to say thanks to anyone who is reading, I am really enjoying writing this story. I am a little disappointed at the lack of reviews though. It does get discouraging, so please, keep reviewing. And karaoke, a special thanks again to you for the plug, that was just the encouragement I needed right then.

Chapter 12- Only in Miami

Nathan pulled up to Brooke's house and laughed out loud as he got out of her car and saw her surrounded by multiple suitcases. "Brooke, we are only going for the weekend. Do you really need all those suitcases?" She looked absolutely adorable in what Nathan assumed to be her travel clothes, a pair of purple velour capris and matching jacket. She always had the cutest outfits, she matched all the way down to her flip flops.

"Tease all you like but I do need all of this stuff. By the way, they aren't all suitcases, this is my makeup bag." Brooke exclaimed, picking up the smallest of the bags.

"Yeah, well what about the other two? How many clothes can you possibly need for a weekend?" Nathan loved to tease Brooke, she looked so cute when she got defensive.

"I didn't know what we would be doing so I wanted to be prepared for everything. Anyways, only one of the bags has clothes, the other has shoes. And if it makes you feel any better, neither of them are totally full, I just cannot have my shoes touching my clothes." Brooke tried to pick up all her bags at once to put them in Nathan's car.

"Hey there princess, I wouldn't want you to strain yourself. Let me get those."

"What a gentleman. So, how long do you think it will take us to get there?" Brook hated being in the car for too long.

"Not long at all, a little under two hours I am guessing. I wouldn't think traffic would be too bad at this time of the day on Friday, we should miss rush hour by a couple of hours."

"Great, lets get a move on. Oh, can we stop at McDonald's? I am starving!"

ooooOoooo

"Not bad, not bad at all." Brooke said looking around their hotel room. "I could learn to deal with this life, the life of an NBA star's girlfriend."

"Hey now, I am not a star yet. We will see how much playing time I even get." Nathan didn't want to seem over confident, but he was actually pretty confident that he would be getting a lot of playing time. He had been Miami Heat's first pick in the draft, they had been recruiting him heavily throughout his last two years at Duke.

"Haha, right. I will settle if I have to, and just be the girlfriend of a mediocre NBA player, it still doesn't sounds too bad." Brooke teased.

"You know what does sound great?"

"What?"

"You calling yourself my girlfriend." Nathan broke out into a huge smile and leaned down to kiss Brooke.

"Well that is what I am isn't it?" Brook puffed our her bottom lip, pretending he had hurt her feelings.

"Yes, that is definitely what you are. So, I was thinking we could hit up the beach for a few hours before dinner. How does that sound?"

"Perfect, but what if I didn't pack a bathing suit?" Brooke had to tease him a little more.

"I am sure that with all the luggage you brought there is a bathing suit in there somewhere!"

ooooOoooo

Later that evening, after an amazing dinner, Brooke and Nathan were enjoying some drinks at a club. They had been sitting in a corner enjoying their drinks and talking when Brooke gave Nathan a mischievous look. "Come on Nate, come dance with me."

"No, that's okay, I don't really dance. I have never been really good at it."

"Wrong answer, come on." Brooke stood up and gave Nathan her best puppy dog face, "I promise, with me, you won't be embarrassed."

"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." Nathan allowed Brooke to drag him to the middle of the dance floor. She put her arm behind his back, pulled him right up against her, and started moving her hips.

"Just move with me." Nathan started to move a little bit against Brooke, "See, you are doing just fine. Just relax and move with me."

Nathan couldn't take his eyes off Brooke, she was wearing a turquoise dress that hugged every curve of her petite body perfectly and her hair was loose and curly. She looked unbelievably sexy, and all this grinding she was doing against him was really starting to turn him on. He looked around and could see other guys looking at Brooke, he knew it wasn't just him that was thinking how sexy she was.

Brooke had to laugh to herself, Nathan really wasn't all that bad of a dancer, maybe a little shy though. She just kept grinding up against him, and every time they touched she could feel this incredible electricity between them. Brooke hated to admit it but all this dancing was turning her on. She had never had a guy turn her on like Nathan did. Even some looks he gave her did the trick. She decided to stop thinking about it and do something so she grabbed his neck and pulled him down and kissed him as hard as she could.

Nathan loved it when Brooke got aggressive with him. She was standing there kissing him and still managing to dance with the rhythm of the music. He didn't know how she did it, once she started kissing him it took all Nathan had to not go weak in the knees.

"What do you say we take this back to the hotel room?" Brooke looked at Nathan with a look he couldn't refuse.

"Sounds good to me, lets go." Nathan threw back the rest of his beer and they were on the way.

ooooOoooo

Not fifteen minutes later they had made it back their hotel room. Brooke was frantically kissing Nathan and she started to unbutton his shirt. As she was doing this Nathan picked her up and carried her over to the bed where he sat down and she straddled him. She pulled of his shirt and started to kiss his chest. Nathan reached behind Brooke and untied her dress. He unhooked her black strapless bra and just looked at her, mesmerized by how perfect she was. As Brooke went to unbutton Nathan's pants he stopped her.

"Brooke, as much as I want this, it is too soon. I need you to trust me completely before we make love. I know that you could sit there and tell me that you do, but that would be in the heat of the moment. I need you to really know, in your heart, that I will always be there for you." Nathan didn't want to hurt Brooke's feelings but he just couldn't do it yet.

"No, it's okay, I understand. It means a lot to me that you respect me this much." Brooke reached back to tie her dress.

"Well, don't go that far. I thought of something else that we could do that would be romantic, and that wouldn't require your dress." Nathan scooped her up off the bed, "Now close your eyes." Nathan carried Brooke into the bathroom and put her down. "Okay, you can open them."

Brooke opened her eyes and saw the huge bathtub filled to the top with bubbles. There were vanilla scented candles lining the tub. "This is beautiful, I can't believe that you did all this Nathan. I love it."

"I thought that this would be something that we could enjoy together. If you want to go grab your suit we can hop in."

"There isn't any need for my bathing suit," Brooke said as she let her dress fall to the floor, "I am not shy with you Nathan." She stepped out of her lace thong and walked towards the tub, she turned around, "Are you going to join me?"

Nathan could barely speak. All he could to was stand there, taking in her beauty. "Brooke, you are absolutely gorgeous. Every inch of you is perfection."

"Well, take your pants off and come join this perfection in this bathtub." Brook said as she sunk into the bath.

Nathan unbuttoned his pants and let them drop. He stepped out of his boxers and walked towards Brooke, "So how is the weekend shaping up so far?"

Brooke looked Nathan up and down, "Better than I even thought possible."


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's note: **Thanks again to everyone for reading. I just wanted to let you know that I have started another story, a Brooke and Lucas this time. Check it out, it is called When the Heart Won't Let Go. The intro of it describes it all.

Chapter 13- House Hunting

"Brooke, we have to go like five minutes ago." Nathan was starting to get impatient, he didn't want to be late meeting his real estate agent.

"I am coming, hold your horses." Brooke came out of the bathroom in a pair of pair of pinstripe capri pants and a white wife beater.

Nathan took in her outfit and noticed her shoes. "Brooke, we are going to be doing a lot of walking, are you sure that those shoes won't hurt your feet?"

"Nope, I am a pro at stilettos, plus, these heels are nothing compared to what I normally wear." Brooke always believed that sometimes you had to deal with a little pain to look good. "I am starving, do we have time to stop for breakfast?"

"Nope, but don't worry, I ran downstairs and grabbed us some muffins and coffee, we can eat them in the car on the way."

ooooOoooo

Later that day they were driving towards what seemed like the hundredth house that day. "I think that you will really fall in love with this one Mr. Scott. It is on the higher end of your price range and absolutely gorgeous. The best part, the owners have already moved out so assuming there are no problems with your paperwork you could close on it as early as next week."

"Wow." Brooke exclaimed as they pulled up to a two story white house. It had the thatched roof that all of the houses in Florida had. It had a long driveway and huge, screened in wrap around porch. "This place is gorgeous."

"Lets go take a look inside." The real estate agent got out of the car, "If you are impressed by this just wait a few minutes."

They walked in to a huge entryway, there was a winding staircase leading to the second floor. There was the most gorgeous chandelier in the middle of the ceiling. "If you will follow me I will give you the tour. Here we have the kitchen, it is slightly small but it attaches to this enormous dining room. If we go through the dining room here we have the living room, and if you follow me through the entryway we will come to the family room."

Nathan eyes looked like they would pop out of their head as he walked into the family room. It had french doors leading to back deck. Right off the deck there was a pond and if you looked past the pond there was a view of the city that went for miles. He could already imagine Brook and himself grilling out on the deck together.

"Now, we can go and take a look at the upstairs. There are two bedrooms and a den, the master bedroom connects to its own bathroom. There is another full bathroom up here as well."

"All this space is great. I don't know if I would know of anything to use it for though." Nathan didn't want to have more than he needed, even if it was perfect.

"I am sure that we can come up with a use for all the rooms." Brooke reassured him, she hated to see him turn down a gorgeous house like this. They walked into the master bedroom and then into the bathroom, there was a Jacuzzi bathtub and a separate shower. The ceiling over the tub was all glass, Brooke knew that it would afford a beautiful view of the starry sky at night.

After looking through the rest of the upstairs they headed down into the basement. "Now this basement is fully furnished. Down here you have one large room and then a second smaller one which has the washer and dryer hook up."

Nathan looked at the huge space, "Wow, this would make a great workout room."

"Yes it certainly would." They headed back upstairs. "So what do you think of it."

"Well, it is a little more space than I imagined having, but it is too nice to pass up, start on the paperwork, I will take it."

ooooOoooo

Dinner that evening was full of Brooke and Nathan shooting back ideas about what he could do with the house. "You could always turn the second bedroom into a guest room. The den will be a nice spot for your computer and stuff."

"I don't really use a computer all that much."

"Yeah well you had better get used to it, I expect a lot of e-mails from you while I am slaving away at my desk." Brooke knew that he would be just fine in that house. He just had to adjust to the idea of all that space.

"It is great that I will be able to close on the house before I move here, I didn't want to have to live in a hotel, even if it was only for a week."

"Do you have furniture and stuff?" Brooke wondered.

"No, but I was hoping that we could go and look at some stuff tomorrow. I don't have much to move on my own, just clothes and my tv and some other stuff. I figure I might as well just buy all of the furniture new and have it delivered right to the house. They they will put it all together for me and put it right where I want it. It just seems like that would make the move ten times easier."

"Definitely. Your house is going to be gorgeous, it puts my little house to shame, with all of my second hand furniture and stuff." Brook pouted for a minute.

"I like your house. It is nice and homey. It is perfect for you. Not only that, but it is all yours. I know how important that is to you. After all, you are just starting out. For all you know you could have a house like mine in a few years." Nathan didn't want Brooke to ever feel bad about the things she had attained all by herself.

"Yeah, I know you are right. Wow, I already can't wait to visit just so I can sit out on your back deck."

"Yeah, it will be great for grilling. I will have to get a nice patio set. So tomorrow, we will go and pick out all the furniture?" Nathan knew that his taste wasn't all that great when it came to home furnishings, he really valued Brooke's opinion.

"Yep, it sounds like it will be a lot of fun."


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's note: **This chapter is short, but really important to the story. I promise that you are in for a great treat with the next chapter.

Chapter 14- There Are Good Days…

Brooke was sitting at her desk one day anxious to go home. It was Wednesday, and she hated Wednesdays, they meant that it had been three days since she had seen Nathan and two more days since she would see him again. She knew that this long distance thing would be tough but these first couple of weeks hadn't been as bad as she thought they would. She had the hardest time in the middle of the week, when it felt like it would be forever until it was Friday again.

So far Brooke had gone to see Nathan both weekends that he had been gone. They had been doing stuff to make the house more Nathan, lots of painting and wall papering and stuff. They had also done lots of shopping, Nathan didn't have anything that he needed. He didn't have a single pot or pan or anything. She loved being there with him, helping him with all that stuff. It made her feel like she lived there. He made sure that she knew how much he valued her opinion about everything. Nathan was always telling Brooke that he wanted her to be comfortable there.

The best moment had been when, during the first weekend she went to visit him, Nathan had given her keys to his house. He said that he wanted her to be able to come there anytime and be able to get in, even if he wasn't home. Nathan never wanted Brooke to have to wait outside for him if he was running late. Brooke was thrilled, she had never been given a key to a boyfriend's place before. Brooke gave Nathan a key to her house as well. She felt the same way he did, she wanted him to always be able to get into her house.

Brooke let her thoughts go to the coming weekend. Nathan was coming to Tampa to see Brooke and she wanted to have a really special weekend. She was planning to cook for him Friday night and then she was hoping they could go see a movie. Brooke had always been a romantic and cuddling up to Nathan in a dark theatre seemed like the perfect way for them to spend their Friday night together. Saturday she was thinking they could go to Busch Gardens for the day, she knew that they would have tons of fun there. Then Sunday morning she planned on bringing Nathan breakfast in bed and then spending most of the day there, together, watching movies or whatever until he had to leave.

Alison walked into Brooke's office and interrupted her daydreams, "I have great news Brooke."

"Oh I am excited? What?"

"We have a fashion show we want you to attend, out of town."

Brooke was getting really excited, "Where?"

"Los Angeles. We will be putting you up in a fabulous hotel, flying you first class, and you will have a driver to take you anywhere you need to go. Speaking of which, we need to get you set up with one of the company cards. We can take care of the paperwork for that tomorrow. How does that sound?"

"Do you even have to ask? It sounds great! When do you need me to go?" Brooke could bearly contain her excitement.

"A week from Monday, you would be there for five days."

"Sounds great, I can't wait!"

"Now, it is quitting time, see you tomorrow, we can discuss it all then." Allison walked out of her office, Brooke couldn't wait to talk to Nathan that night and fill him in.

ooooOoooo

"I had the best day ever at work today." Brooke was on the phone with Nathan. "I get to go away for a fashion show in LA and I get to be there for five whole days. They are putting me up in a fancy hotel and I fly first class and I have a driver. Doesn't that sound great?"

"It does. I am so excited for you. I am so happy you love your job."

"I do, it is great. I am already learning so much. I am thinking that within two to three years I will have the contacts I need to start designing my own stuff." Brooke got excited just thinking about when that day would come. "What about you? How was your day?"

"It was fine. Tiring. They are really kicking our butts to get us into shape. The guys still haven't really eased up on me." Nathan was one of only 3 white guys on the team. The team was really welcoming him with open arms. It reminded him of how he and the team treated Lucas when he joined the Ravens back in high school. It made him feel pretty bad.

"I wish I could be there to give you a massage or something." Brooke hated not being able to see him whenever she wanted.

"I wish you could be here too. But I will see you soon enough. Have you decided what you want to do this weekend?" Nathan was already counting the days until he would see her again.

"Yep, I have it all planned, but it will be a surprise. Just make sure that you have some sneaker with you. Oh, and a bathing suit. The rest you will just have to wait to find out."

"Okay, sounds good. I am going to get going now, I want to go and soak in the tub to relax my muscles, but I will talk to you tomorrow night right?"

"Of course." Brooke looked forward to their nightly conversations all day.

"Good. Oh yeah, one more thing Brooke, I love you. I know it is soon but I have known it for a couple of weeks now, but I didn't want to scare you and way it, I wanted to…."

"…..ssshhhh Nathan, I love you too."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15- And Then There Are Bad Days

Brooke was having a terrible day and it was only 10 am. She had more work to do then she knew what to do with. She had been out of the office all last week in LA and she had a lot to catch up on. Deciding that stressing out wasn't the best thing to do, she picked up her phone and dialed Nathan's cell.

"Hello." Nathan answered on the fourth ring, he sounded out of breath.

"Hey Nathan, it's me. I am sorry if I interrupted you, I am just having a terrible day and I wanted to talk to you really quick."

Nathan figured he could take a few minutes to talk to her, his run could wait. "Oh, baby. What's going on?"

"I am just so bombarded with work. I missed so much stuff while I was gone last week. And I missed seeing you this weekend. Right now all I want is a big hug from you, that would make it all better."

"Aw, I'm sorry things aren't going good. Don't worry though, we will see eachother this weekend."

"I know but it this past weekend was the first weekend we spent apart and I really didn't like it." Brooke didn't want to sound whiny but she was pretty upset.

"I didn't like it either, but that will happen sometimes. Keep your chin up, the day will start getting better, you'll see. I'm really sorry but I have to finish this run so I can make it to practice on time."

"Don't be sorry, I understand, I will talk to you tonight, right?"

"I would miss it for the world."

"Good, I love you Nathan."

"I love you too Brooke, talk to you later, I hope your day gets better. Bye."

Brooke felt a little better after just hearing his voice. She put her phone down, took a deep breathe, and dove right into her work.

ooooOoooo

On her way home the evening Brooke was amazed at how exhausted she was. She had worked her butt off so that when she went in tomorrow she wouldn't have so much to deal with. As much as she loved going away for a whole week for work she was definitely paying for it now. Next time, Brooke thought to herself, I will get more done before I go away so that it doesn't all pile up.

As Brooke pulled on to her street she realized how much she wished she could see Nathan. She knew she would talk to him later that night, but seeing him and getting a big hug from him would just make everything all better.

She pulled into her driveway and grabbed her bags, she went to put her key in the lock in the front door but as she did the door knob turned. Brooke thought it odd because she was really careful about locking the house each morning. Walking into the entryway she looked from side to side, something just didn't feel right. She began to walk towards the living room when she noticed a trail of pink rose petals leading towards her bedroom.

Following the white roses she was a little confused, Nathan was in Miami, so it couldn't have been him who had done this. She got to her bedroom and put her hand on the doorknob, she got her cell phone out of her purse just in case.

Brooke took a few deep breaths and then held her breath as she opened the door, she was shocked at what she saw. Nathan was sitting on her bed with a single rose and a bottle of wine. "Hey babe."

"Nathan, what are you doing here?" Brooke was shocked to see him sitting right in front of her.

"Well, you sounded pretty upset earlier so I decided to come and see what I could do to cheer you up."

"What about practice?" Brooke was touched, she almost didn't know what to say.

"We were done around three so I showered and headed here, I figured you wouldn't be home before six. I figured that a night with me was just what you needed to de-stress."

"It is exactly what I needed. I just can't believe you came all this way for one night."

"When I told you I loved you I really meant it Brooke. I know that I can't always be here for you when you need me but I promise to always try my best to get here." Nathan thought he saw a glimmer of tears in Brooke's eyes, he hadn't meant to make her cry. "Brooke, are you okay?"

"I am fine, perfect in fact. I could ask for anything more. You are an amazing man Nathan, thank you for being here." Brooke walked towards him and cupped his face in her hands, she looked him right in the eyes, "Something like this reinforces that I really can trust you with my heart."

"You can, I am glad you know that now."

"Make love to me Nathan?" Brooke had never had to ask for it before, but now she felt as though she needed him. She couldn't wait any longer.

Nathan stood up and kissed Brooke, lightly at first and then harder as their passion ensued. Nathan looked down at Brooke and knew that they both wanted this. He started to trail kisses down her neck as he slid her jacket off, he let it fall to the floor. Nathan started to lead her backwards towards the bed, cupping her head in his hand as he laid her down. She inched back towards her pillow and pulled in his shirt so he would follow her. He reached down and unbuttoned her blouse. Bending down he took her nipple in his mouth through her black lace bra. She started to moan in pleasure. Brooke eased herself up so she was sitting and pulled Nathan's shirt up over his head. She pushed him back and kissed all down his stomach. "I have waited so long for this Nathan."

"I have too Brooke." He reached for her shoulders and slid her shirt off, he threw it on the floor. He reached behind her to unhook her bra and watched in awe as her beautiful breasts poured out, her nipples were bright red and hard as rocks. He kissed each of them and then kissed down her stomach. He found the zipper on her skirt and unzipped it, she lifted at her hips to help him slide it off. Then, he slid down her black lace panties. He looked her right in the eyes and slid two fingers into her center, "Brooke, you are so wet, you feel so good." He could hear her moaning and feel her tightening around his fingers.

Nathan slowed for a minute and shifted so his mouth was where his fingers were moments before. As his tongue slipped inside her wetness she began to move her hips, her breaths were quickening and becoming more shallow. He knew she was close, but didn't want her to come yet. He stood up, off the bed, and began to unbutton his pants. Brooke watched in awe as he let them slide down to the floor. Nathan then laid back on top of her. He started to kiss her again and she reached down and slid his boxers down a little, she took his hardness in his hands and started to massage it. Brooke then rolled over so Nathan was underneath her. She pulled off his boxers and lowered her mouth to his hardness. As soon as Nathan felt her mouth around him he knew he couldn't wait any longer. He reached off the bed and pulled a condom out of his pants pocked. "Brooke, I can't wait any longer, I want to be inside you."

Brooke laid back down as Nathan slid the condom on, he then lowered himself on top of her. Right before he entered her he looked her right in the eyes, " I love you Brooke."

"I love you Nathan." The confirmation was all he needed, with one thrust he was inside of her. He moved slowly at first, he didn't want to come too soon. Brooke moved her hips with his and as her breathing got shallow he knew that she was just about there, he started moving quicker, thrusting harder. Suddenly, he felt a shudder to through her body and he let himself release.

Nathan stayed there, on top of Brooke, for a few minutes after. They were clinging to eachother. Finally he lifted himself off of her and laid down next to her. She rolled over onto his side and laid her head on his chest. "That was amazing. I have never had anyone make me feel like that before."

"Neither have I Brooke. I wanted you so bad I couldn't hold it in for one more second. Just the sight of your naked body makes me hard." Nathan watched Brooke as she wrapped her arm around him and closed her eyes. She fell asleep in his arms and all Nathan could do was lie there and watch her.

ooooOoooo

A little later Nathan felt Brooke move next to him. He turned and looked at the clock, 8:30, he must have dozed off as well. "Did you have a nice nap?"

"Yeah, what time is it?" Brooke asked groggily.

"8:30. You must have been pretty tired, you were out like a light."

"Yeah, I was exhausted." Brooke stretched her body a little. A huge smile broke out across her face as she remembered what had happened earlier. "Are you hungry? I could make us some dinner."

"Yeah, I am starving." Nathan began to sit up. Brooke got up and walked towards her bathroom, she reached behind the door and pulled on a white terry cloth robe. She reached behind the door again and then tossed a robe to Nathan.

"These were so soft that I bought one for you to. Come on, lets go see what is in the kitchen."

They walked towards the kitchen together, Brooke opened the refrigerator as Nathan began to look through cabinets, "Well Brooke, it isn't looking good."

Brooke laughed, "I know. You know what I could go for right about now?"

"What?"

"A McDonalds double cheeseburger and fries. What do you say? Dinner, my treat?"

"Sounds great. I hate to get out of this robe though." Nathan hated to get dressed.

"Then don't, I can run out and get some food. Stay here and watch tv or something, I will be back in a few." Brooke walked towards her room to get dressed. Once she emerged Nathan had already gotten the tv on and turned to SportsCenter. "Well, it looks like you won't even miss me." She bent down and kissed him on the cheek. "See you in a few."


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's note: **Thanks to those of you who keep reading and reviewing, I really appreciate it. Normally this major lack of reviews would make me give up on a story, but I really love this one and have some great ideas so I am going to keep going. A special thanks to karaokediva and kaos for being such loyal readers. One more things, I know very little about basketball, not only the game but also the time frame, like when games start and all that, so I will just wing it and admit to anyone reading that that is what I am doing.

Chapter 16- It Goes Both Ways

Nathan could barely contain his excitement as he showered after practice. Their first game was coming. Now, it wasn't a game that counted for anything but it would be his chance to finally prove what he can do. The Orlando Magic had agreed to come and play a practice game, for the benefit of both teams. Scrimmaging against other players on their own team was getting old, as they had been doing it for months. Nathan had proved that he could school most of his teammates, but kicking the asses of another team would really prove his skills.

He stopped at Chick-Fila on his way home to grab his favorite take out dinner, two grilled chicken patties with an order of waffle fries, garden salad and a fruit cup. Arriving home he was anxious to finish his dinner and call Brooke. She had been so supportive of basketball so he knew that she would share in his excitement.

In about fifteen minutes he had polished off all of his food and picked up his cell, hitting speed dial number 2 he waited for her to pick up. "Hello."

"Hey there sweetheart, how are you doing?" God, hearing her voice, even that one word, sent Nathan's heart soaring.

"I am great, how are you? How was your day?" Brooke had been waiting all day to talk to Nathan. She had gotten great news about a business trip and she wanted to tell him all about it.

"My day was great, guess what?"

"Hmmmm, you are coming a day early this weekend?" Brooke asked jokingly, over the past few months they had adjusted well to their long distance relationship. They savored their time together on weekends and talked on the phone at least one everyday. They were both thrilled with how things were going.

"No, unfortunately it isn't as great as that." Nathan knew she was only kidding, they both had really busy schedules and knew that they were lucky to have the weekends together like they did. "The Orlando Magic is coming this Thursday for a practice game."

"That is great! You must be so excited to get to play people who aren't your teammates." Brooke knew that Nathan loved new challenges and was getting sick of playing the same guys over and over.

"I am thrilled. The only thing that bums me out a little is that you can't be there to see my play." Nathan's voice had a pinch of disappointment backing it.

"I wish I could be there, but besides that fact that I have to work that day, your practices are closed, you know that." Brooke hated to hear the disappointment in his voice.

"The coaches said that they would open this up to friends and family. But honey don't feel bad, I was just joking around. I know you have to work. I know that you will be there for my first game." Nathan forced himself to sound happy, the last thing he wanted was to make Brooke feel guilty for doing what she had to do to fulfill her dreams.

"I have it marked on my calendar, October 15th, home game. I will be there, I promise you that." Brooke had sworn that she would try and make it to every home game that Nathan had. It was only a two hour drive and the games started around 8 or so, affording her plenty of time to get there after work and she would still get home at a reasonable hour. Admittedly, a perk of her job was that if worst came to worse she could stay with Nathan after a game and then drive home the next morning, it would be no problem if she went in a couple of hours late and long as she didn't have a meeting and got all of her work done.

"So babe, tell me about your day." Nathan settled back to hear all about what was going on with Brooke, he thought to himself how lucky he was to have her, even if she was a few hours away. There were few places he would rather be then sitting there talking to her for hours.

ooooOoooo

It was nearing noon on Thursday when Brooke finally had a chance to look up from her work and see the time. Nathan's practice game would start in three hours, she picked up her cell to call and wish him good luck. She wasn't at all surprised when his voicemail picked up, he usually turned his phone off for practice and what not so that he could really focus all of his energy on basketball. She loved that about him, especially because he treated Brooke with the same kind of intensity, when he was with her it was all about her.

"Hey babe, it's me. I just wanted to call and wish you good luck. I had hoped to catch you before you turned off your phone, but you probably had practice before. Anyways, kick some ass and I will talk to you tonight. I love you. Bye bye." Brooke shut her pink flip phone. She looked at the clock again and focused her gaze back on the pile of work in front of her.

ooooOoooo

The game was just about to start and Nathan peered into the bleachers. He knew that Brooke had to work and couldn't come but he had secretly hoped that she would find a way. He understood though, he wanted to support her dreams just as much as she did his. Turning back to the court he put up a three pointer, when he heard the swoosh he knew that today he would be right on top of his game.

Ten minutes into the game Nathan had already kicked some serious ass. He had been sinking shot after shot, he had already scored 18 points. He stole the ball from one of his opponents and jumped up, sinking another three pointer. "Way to go Scott!" He hear an all too familiar voice come from the bleachers, he thought he was dreaming. Nathan turned anyways and there she was, walking through the bleachers in her business suit. How had she done it? How did Brooke get here? She had just left him a voicemail from work a few hours ago. Whatever had gotten her here, he didn't care, all that matters was that she was there. Now, he would play his ass off for her.

Nathan sunk one last shot at the final buzzer. His team had won, 48 to 46. Nathan had scored 40 of his teams 48 points, he was really on fire today. Taking his position in line he shook the hands of the Orlando players. As soon as he could he turned and broke into a run.

He bounded up the bleachers and scooped her into his arms. "Ew, you are all sweaty!" Brooke teased, she didn't care though, she was so happy to be looking into his eyes she wouldn't have cared if he had been covered in mud.

"How did you get here?"

"I drove silly. I went in early this morning so I had gotten almost all of my work done. I cut out about 1, sorry I was late, construction was a bitch." Judging by the huge grin on Nathan's face, Brooke had made the right decision in coming.

"But why? This was just a practice game." Nathan stared deep into Brooke's eyes.

"Because you wanted me to be here."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17- The Ties That Bind Us

Nathan tried to stay awake as he drove home from practice. Practice today had been extra hard and extra long. Not expecting this, he had gone for a ten mile run in the morning before heading to practice. There was no doubt about it, Nathan was exhausted. The only thing that kept him awake on the drive home was the thought that it was finally Friday and Brooke would be there waiting for him.

Finally pulling into the driveway he was relieved to see her car sitting there. As he approached his house he could see that Brooke had lit some candles. Opening the door he could smell dinner cooking and realized just how hungry he was. "Hey boyfriend." Brooke walked out into the front hall and leaned in to kiss him. "A little sweaty are we?" Brooke teased him.

"Yeah, practice today was crazy long and hard. I thought it would never end."

"Aw, babe. Sounds like a rough day. Well, I have been slaving over a hot stove for hours preparing you a nice dinner. It should be done in about 15 minutes so why don't you go and take a hot shower. When you are out we can eat." Brooke knew that since basketball season was now in full swing, the days that Nathan wasn't playing a game or traveling he had long, exhausting practices. She wanted to be there whenever she could to help him relax.

While showering Nathan thought about the weekend ahead of them. He had a game tomorrow in New York City, Brooke would be going with him. They were catching a flight out early the next morning. Nathan had an early afternoon game which Brooke would come and watch and then they could enjoy the rest of the weekend together until they had to catch a plane back to Florida Sunday afternoon. Brooke had been incredible, she went to every game that she possibly could. It was always tough during the week because she worked, but almost every weekend she was there cheering him on, no matter where the game was.

Brooke had felt guilty at first about letting Nathan pay for all of her plane tickets to his games. It took him a little while to make her realize that he wasn't doing it just for her, it was for him too. Having her there cheering for him always made him play better. Even when he couldn't see her there, he could feel that she was there. It was rare though that he couldn't see her, the friends and family of the team usually got pretty awesome seats. She seemed to deal with the guilt and had adjusted quite well to the life as an NBA stars girlfriend.

An NBA star was definitely what he had become. Nathan was on of the top scorers on his team. He had won the admiration and respect of his entire team by putting in endless hours at the gym or running with the team whenever possible. He had also made sure to accept invitations from his teammates whenever possible, whether it be to dinner after practice, to a party, or to just grab a drink and hang out. Nathan had been determined to prove to the team that he not only deserved to be there, but also that he wanted to be there. He had definitely succeeded at this.

Walking into the kitchen Nathan stared in shock at the table, "Wow, you really did go all out."

"Well, it started with just steaks, but then I decided that I was craving baked potatoes. Then I remembered that you loved corn on the cob. Then I figured that a nice Caesar salad would top it all off. I hope you are hungry." Brooke was so cute when she rambled on and on.

"Yes, I am starving." Nathan pulled out a chair to sit down at one of the places Brooke had set, she followed. He cut into his steak and took a huge bite, "Wow, this is incredible."

"Yeah, that grill of yours out back really gets the job done." Brooke was pretty impressed, as she and Nathan had been having their weekend visits she had picked up quite a few cooking skills. "It was my first time grilling, I fought with the grill for a while before I realized the problem was that you were out of gas."

"Yep. I had some of the guys on the team over last week for a cook out. I realized it was gone then and hadn't had a chance to get more." Nathan could just imagine Brooke messing with the grill, it was just the cutest thought.

"No biggie, I went and got some more. So, rough week?" Brooke gave Nathan a sympathetic look.

"Yeah, things have been crazy lately. What about you, how was your week?"

"Not that bad actually, busy, but not too busy. Our special holiday line hit the shelves last week, so since then things have settled down. I haven't had to put it any more of those crazy 12 hour days."

"That's good. Are you looking forward to this weekend?" Nathan thought about their little getaway this weekend, he couldn't wait to tour New York City with Brooke on his arm.

"Yeah, I can't wait. I hope to get a little bit of my Christmas shopping started." A huge grin grew on Brooke's face, "I absolutely love the holidays Nathan, I am so excited to get to spend them with you."

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that. I just found out that I have five days off for Thanksgiving, starting with the day before and going through that weekend." Nathan knew that what he was about to say could go really badly.

"That's good, I am sure I can get the day before off too. Did you have anything in mind that you wanted to do? Spend Thanksgiving with your mom or anything?" Brooke could see that there was something on Nathan's mind.

"Actually, I was considering going to Tree Hill for Thanksgiving."

Brooke looked surprised, "But why? Your mom is here."

"Yeah, I know, but I haven't seen my grandparents in forever and they are going to be in Tree Hill to see my father for Thanksgiving. I figured this way I could spend some time with them. And…I want to spend some time with Lucas, I haven't seen him since spring break last year, he will be in Tree Hill for his Thanksgiving break." Nathan didn't even try to say more, he knew that the mere mention of Lucas' name would illicit a reaction from Brooke.

Brooke looked thoughtful for a moment and then took a deep breathe and exhaled, "I knew that this would happen at some point. He is your brother, it was obvious that you would see him at some point. Does he know about us?"

"Yeah, I told him about a month after we started dating." Nathan knew that being up front with his brother about everything was the only way to handle the situation.

"And how did he react? Did he even care?"

"Of course he cared. He could tell how happy I was though, so he said that he was fine with it, he wouldn't let it be weird, us being brothers and all and having both dated you. Since then he has regularly asked how things were going with us. He is actually really supportive. All he wants for both of us is happiness." Nathan wasn't quite sure what the look on Brooke's face meant.

"Well, then I say that I will come with you to Tree Hill, if you want me to that is."

"I most definitely do. I want us to spend our first Thanksgiving together." Nathan was relieved that Brooke reacted so well to this.

"Then it is settled, we will spend Thanksgiving in Tree Hill." Brooke's face lit up, "I have to call Peyton, she will be so excited."

"Actually, I was thinking that maybe we could do Thanksgiving dinner with Jake and Peyton. I know that my grandparents will have Thanksgiving dinner with my dad, and that is something I definitely don't want to do."

"Oh, I am so excited, I will call her right after dinner about it. This will be great. The past stuff with me and Lucas, well we can deal with that as we need to. Aw, our first holiday, I can't wait." Broke was already thinking about spending time with her best friend, she hadn't gotten to see her since Peyton came to Florida months ago.

"I can't wait either. It will be perfect." He leaned over and kissed Brooke, she returned his kiss with urgency.

"What do you say to some dessert boyfriend?"


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's note:** I have been to New York City tons of times over the years but have no recollection of exactly where anything is so I am winging it. So, if anyone out there reading this is from there and some of it makes no sense, my apologies. Oh yeah, one more thing, obviously there will be tons of drama as Brooke and Nathan head back to Tree Hill, so I figured I had to have one more romantic chapter before I brought in all the drama…so sit back and enjoy.

Chapter 18- Bright Lights Big City

Brooke walked out of Bloomingdales weighed down by all of her bags. She had meant to start her Christmas shopping, but, after buying one gift for someone else, she ended up buying herself a bunch of stuff. Walking down the street she shivered a little, she had been enjoying the Florida weather so much that she forgot that it was actually freezing in other places and she definitely hadn't packed warm enough clothes. She wrapped her scarf around her one more time and headed down the street towards Macy's.

After a much more successful shopping adventure in Macy's Brooke checked her watch. She realized that Nathan would be finishing team warm ups in about half an hour, so that gave her just enough time to drop off her bags at the hotel and then catch a cab to Madison Square Garden to see Nathan before the game started.

ooooOoooo

As the game came to an end Brooke could already feel that her throat was going to hurt tomorrow. She had been yelling as loudly as she could, Nathan had played an amazing game and she wanted him to hear her cheering. Of course, Brooke knew that that was impossible, there was no way he could hear her voice over all the racket, but she knew that it was her effort that mattered.

Nathan finished getting dressed and stuffed all his sweaty uniform and basketball shoes into his bag. As he strapped on his watch he noticed that it was already 5, that was perfect, he and Brooke would get to their dinner reservations right on time.

Walking out of the locker room it was only a matter of seconds before Brooke bounced over to him. "Boyfriend, that was an amazing game. I yelled my lungs off for you."

"Thanks babe, it was a great game. I am flying high right now, I couldn't ask for more, not only did I score the most points of anyone on the team, but I also get to spend the next 24 hours with you. What else could I ask for?"

"Well, if you play your cards right, you might just get lucky." Brooke threw Nathan a wink as they walked out of Madison Square Garden hand in hand. "So, where are we headed for dinner?"

"I was thinking that we do the fancy thing a lot, and I knew that neither of us would be all dressed up after the game, so I figured we could head to this great place I heard about called Jekyll and Hyde. It is a theme restaurant that is rumored to have the most amazing hamburgers."

"A little red meat sounds perfect to me. Is it nearby or should we catch a cab?" Brooke's feet already hurt a little bit from all the shopping she did earlier, she secretly hoped Nathan would suggest the cab.

"It isn't that far, but it is a little cold so why don't we take the cab." Nathan stuck his arm out and watched as cab after cab flew by him.

"Let me try." Brooke stepped in front of him and stuck out her arm, the first cab to drive towards the pulled over. "Hm, must be I have the magic touch."

"Something like that."

ooooOoooo

Later on during dinner the conversation took the anticipated turn, "I talked to Peyton about Thanksgiving." Brooke opened it up.

"Yeah, what did she have to say?"

"She is super excited. She said that you and I can stay at her and Jake's place, they have a guest room and everything. Peyton admitted to being a little nervous about preparing Thanksgiving dinner for all of us, but I told her I would help her out so she agreed to it."

"Of course, we all know what an experienced chef you are." Nathan teased her.

"Hey, I made you that amazing steak dinner last night. I even fired up the grill all by myself."

"Grilling some steaks is a lot different than preparing a turkey and all that other stuff, but I have faith in you. Just to be on the safe side, I will ask my grandmother to make me copies of some recipes, just in case you run into any problems." Nathan was sure that the two girls could handle it on their own, but he also knew that it would taste better if they had a little bit of guidance.

"If you insist. So are we going to drive up to Tree Hill or fly?"

"Well, I had considered driving, but then I figured that we are taking a little vacation here, and a much deserved one at that. And since we both spend so much time driving on the weekends to see each other, we should fly so we really feel like we are taking a vacation. Plus, then we will get there in like under two hours, if we drove it would take close to twelve." Nathan loved Brooke to death, but having been in a car with Brooke for even two hours he knew how antsy she got and that started to get a little annoying. He figured that twelve hours might be a little too much.

"Sounds good to me. I am not such a big fan of super long road trips." Brooke loved Nathan and all but she didn't want to tell him, his driving made her a little crazy. Two hours was one thing, but twelve, he would drive her nuts. "So, what do you have up your sleeve for after dinner?"

"How do you know I have something planned?"

"I don't know, because you always do. So what is it?" Brooke loved that Nathan always came up with super romantic things for the two of them to do.

"It's a surprise, you'll see."

ooooOoooo

Stepping out of the cab Brooke drew in a deep breathe, she was absolutely mystified at the sight before her. Nathan had taken her to some pretty romantic places, but this took the cake. "It is beautiful."

"A friend told me that the one thing I absolutely had to do with you while I was here was taking you ice skating at Rockefellar Center."

"This is so sweet. Let's get skates and hit the ice." Brooke was so excited, not only was it beautiful here, but she hadn't ice skated in years and she used to love it. She knew they would have a great time.

Minutes later, all laced up, they skated onto the rink hand in hand. After a couple of laps around Nathan pulled Brooke into the middle of the rink, "I have kissed you a lot of places, but none of them seem to be as perfect as in the middle of Rockefallar Center."

With that Nathan lowered his mouth to hers, as soon as their lips touched the snow started to fall around them. Brooke pulled away and looked towards the sky, "Ever since I was a little girl I thought that it was so romantic when people kissed with the snow falling all around them, but growing up in North Carolina I never got to experience it first hand. Thank you Nathan, for giving me this perfect moment, just liked I dreamed of for so many years.

And there, in the middle of the ice skating rink at Rockefellar Center, Brooke leaned up towards Nathan, kissing him softly. Right then she knew that this was going to be one holiday season that both of them would remember for years to come.


	19. Chapter 19

**Author's note: **I just wanted to let everyone know that I have started posting another story that I have been working on. It is called Forever Together. It is an AU Naley story. For any of you out there that are not Naley fans just give it a shot, I promise, it is a very different Naley story. I also wanted to remind everyone about my second story, When the Heart Won't Let Go, it is a Brucas story I started a little while ago. As always, thanks for being loyal readers.

Chapter 19- Back to Tree Hill

Brooke and Nathan walked through the airport hand in hand. Their flight had just arrived and Peyton would be there to pick them up. Brooke was nervous beyond belief. She knew that she would have to face her demons on this trip. Seeing Lucas was inevitable, and she had to handle it the right way. Brooke knew that it was time to get closure on their past. She could see her and Nathan having a serious future together and getting along with Lucas, his brother, was important to the success of that relationship.

"Once we get to Peyton's and get settled I will call my grandparents and see what time they wanted to meet for dinner. Is there any certain time that you would prefer?" Nathan knew that Brooke was nervous about meeting his grandparents. He was pretty sure she was also a little scared, Brooke had met Nathan's father quite a few times. She knew of all the terrible things he had done to his son. Nathan figured that Brooke had to worry that his father's parents could be even worse than his father.

"Anytime is fine. It is still early yet so we will have plenty of time to get settled in and then get ready." As soon as Brooke finished her sentence both she and Nathan's cell phones rang. They each grabbed for them.

"Hello."

"Hey, it's Peyton. I am waiting for you guys at the baggage claim." Peyton was excited beyond belief to see her best friend; it had been far too long.

"Okay, we are on our way right now, see you in a few." Brooke turned to Nathan who had stopped walking to listen to whatever was being said on the phone. Brooke tried to gesture him on so that she could get to Peyton quicker, but he just stood where he was. After a few minutes of nodding he simply said whatever, hung up, and started walking again.

"Who was that?" Brooke wondered what had happened that caused Nathan to get agitated.

"It was Dan." Nathan hated how his father had to go and ruin everything. "He just wanted to say that he heard I was going to be in Tree Hill and he really hoped that we could get together." What Nathan didn't tell Brooke was that during all the nodding Nathan had been listening to Dan bash Brooke. He kept referring to her as Nathan's "slut girlfriend." Dan had said that Nathan had to remember Brooke was only after him because of his money and status. She just wanted to be with someone important, and with Nathan's standing on the Miami Heat he was just the ticket. Nathan knew that his father was wrong, but hearing him say it infuriated him. Dan had to go and try to ruin every good thing that happened to Nathan.

"Don't worry about him. If you do decide you want to go and see him I will go with you if you want." Brooke looked towards Nathan.

"That is probably the last thing I want to do, but thank you. Thank you for being supportive. I know that you don't want to see him either, but offering to go with me says a lot about how much you really care for me. I definitely do not want to see him; this is one holiday that I am not going to let him ruin." Brooke's reaction had been just the justification that Nathan needed. "So who called you?"

"Peyton, she was just telling me that she is waiting for us at the baggage claim." The look on Brooke's face was one of sheer excitement.

"Well then why are we taking our time, let's go and see Peyton." Nathan took Brooke's hand and led her towards the escalator.

As they descended to the ground Brooke scoured the crowd trying to find Peyton. Then, she spotted her. At the same moment Peyton looked her way. As soon as the escalator his the floor Brooke took of in a mad dash through the crowd towards her best friend. Reaching her she pulled her into a huge hug, "P. Sawyer, oh how I have missed you."

"I have missed you too B. Davis. How was your flight?" Peyton asked as her and Brooke released each other.

"It was good, the whole trip has been fine, until we got off the plane and Dan called." Brooke knew Peyton would understand, she knew about the majority of the drama between Nathan and his father.

"That sucks, leave it to Dan to try and ruin a holiday. Where is Nathan?" Peyton looked around and then spotted him, trying to pick up the bags that Brooke had dropped when she took off towards Peyton. It looked as though some of the contents of Brooke's purse had spilled all over the ground amidst her excitement to see her best friend. It looked as though Nathan had finally gathered everything up and was walking towards the girls.

"Hey Peyton." Nathan pulled Peyton into a hug.

"Hey Nate, how's everything going?"

"Great, I am back home, I can spend time with all of my old friends, see some of my family, enjoy this holiday, and of course spend five whole days with the woman I love. Things could not be better." Nathan had decided that he would not let Dan ruin his trip, from this point on; Dan did not exist to Nathan.

"Good to hear. Well, let's get your bags and then head over to my place. Jake and Jenny are excited to see you both."

"Great, let me just grab a luggage cart to help us get the stuff to the car." Nathan handed Brooke her purse and carry on bag so he could go and find a cart.

"What, did you lose your muscles?" Peyton teased.

"No, Brooke just packed that much, even my muscles can't carry it all. The airline only allowed three bags per passenger; thankfully I only needed one so Brooke could bring five." Nathan teased Brooke every time they went away anywhere together. It seemed as though she brought one suitcase for each day they would be away.

"Haha. I don't see you complaining when I always manage to look fabulous. Plus, I do recall you needed me to put a shirt of yours into one of my bags." Brooke could tease right back.

"That is true, but remember Brooke, my suitcase is about a quarter of the size of your make up bag." With that Nathan took off on the search for a luggage cart.

"So, tell me, how are things with you guys." Peyton couldn't wait to get the scoop on the two love birds.

"Everything is great. This whole long distance thing isn't as hard as I thought it would be. It is actually pretty easy. I mean, yeah, I miss Nathan tons, but I barely even look at other guys. Nathan keeps me pretty happy."

"Good, I am glad to hear that." Peyton knew that Brooke meant what she said, it was rare that she trusted a guy enough to spend the majority of her time hours away from them.

"How are things with you and Jake?" Brooke hoped that her best friend was just as happy as she was.

"Great. We have settled into a pretty nice little life. Jenny is in school now so I have plenty of time to work during the day. Jake doesn't usually work too late at night so the three of us have dinner together almost every night. It is great."

"Your own little family, that is great Peyton." Brooke was glad that Peyton had people there for her. Things had been rough for her in the past, Peyton's mom had died when Peyton was just a child and her dad had traveled a lot for work. Peyton spent most of her time home alone in her big house. Brooke was glad that all that had changed.

Nathan walked up with a luggage cart, "Ladies, your chariot awaits."

The girls giggled in response and then started towards the baggage claim to get Brooke's multitude of bags. Once they had collected them all they headed towards Peyton's.

In the car on the way there Nathan had to laugh to himself. Brooke and Peyton talked so fast when they were together he was amazed that they could understand each other. They would sometimes say things at the same time and still hear what the other was saying. It was pure chaos.

As they pulled into Peyton's driveway Brooke couldn't help but squeal, "Peyton, this house is so adorable."

"Thanks, we love it. We have only been in it a few months but already it feels like home. Just wait until you see the inside, Jake let me do all the decorating. Oh and Jenny's room, that is my favorite. She helped me with the painting, you will love it."

The two girls took off towards the house leaving Nathan to get all the bags. He was relieved when he looked up and saw Jake heading down the driveway towards him. "Thank god man, I'm not sure I could survive hurricanes Peyton and Brooke without you. I swear, when those two girls are together you cannot get a word in edgewise." He held out his hand to Jake, but Jake pulled him into a manly hug.

"I know, it is pure insanity. Peyton had been talking about this visit non stop. She has been excited since the day Brooke called her about it. We will definitely have to stick together to survive it."

"Definitely. And hey, if it gets that bad we can always head to the river court and shoot some hoops." Nathan remembered back to the days when he and Jake played for the Ravens, they would always go and play at the river court for fun. It was nice to just enjoy the game without their coach yelling at them the whole time.

"Yeah well I don't play much anymore, I am sure I won't be any match for you, Mr. NBA. How is that?" Jake, along with everyone else, always knew that Nathan would make it big in basketball one day.

"It is great. I am definitely living the life." With that Nathan and Jake headed towards the house, as they did Brooke appeared at the door.

"Hurry up and get in here boyfriend, you have to see their place, it is so cute." Brooke glanced down at the bags, "Oh god, you got our stuff." With that she disappeared again.

"And the insanity begins." Jake joked as he held open the door for Nathan.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20- Face to Face

After Brooke and Nathan had dinner with Nathan's grandparents they decided to go and meet Jake and Peyton at a nearby bar. Jake had gotten his parents to watch Jenny overnight so he and Peyton were excited to have a night out with their friends without having to worry about getting home at any certain time.

Dinner had gone well with Nathan's grandparents. They were both very nice to Brooke, asking her questions to find out about her. Brooke was relieved that neither of them acted at all like Dan. It was obvious that Nathan's grandparents were very proud their grandson. Their eyes lit up with any talk of the NBA. It was obvious, through their discussion, that his grandparents watched every single game. Brooke wished that Nathan's father could be as kind as his grandparents, then life would be so much easier.

Once they arrived at the bar Brooke and Peyton headed towards the bathroom. "So Brooke, how was dinner?"

"It was good. Nathan's grandparents are great. I was really nervous about meeting them, among other things. But apparently I was nervous for no reason."

"What else are you nervous about?"

"Lucas, I am so nervous to see him. I don't know if I am ready for it." Brooke explained as her and Peyton finished up in the bathroom and headed back into the bar.

"Well, you better get ready quick." Peyton pointed over to the bar where Lucas was hugging Nathan. "Did you know he was going to be here?"

"No, I had no idea. Nathan must not have known either, he wouldn't have not told me. He knows how concerned I am about all of this. Oh god, Peyton, what do I say to Lucas? I am not mad at what he did to me anymore, but it did affect my life. I have dealt with insecurities for years because of him."

"Just be yourself Brooke. It will work out. Just relax and have fun. Lucas has probably changed a lot, you haven't seen him or talked to him in years, just give it a chance. I mean look at Nathan, he turned out great, maybe Lucas did too." Peyton hated seeing Brooke so worried about all of this. Peyton knew that she would be fine if she could just stop worrying about it so much.

"Miss us?" Brooke asked as she walked up to the boys, putting her arm around Nathan.

"Of course." Nathan bent down and kissed Brooke on the forehead. This small show of affection calmed Brooke's nerves a little bit, she had hoped that Nathan wouldn't act any differently to Brooke just because Lucas was around. The kiss made it clear to Brooke that this wouldn't be the case, Nathan was going to act the same way he always did with Brooke.

"Hey Brooke, Peyton." Lucas looked towards the girls and smiled. He felt unbelievably awkward. Lucas felt as though he should hug them but feared that if he tried to step towards Brooke not only did he run the risk of Nathan pounding his ass, but he also ran the risk of Brooke kneeing him in the balls or something.

"Hey Lucas, it's good to see you." Peyton said as she stepped forward to give Lucas a hug. She felt a little awkward doing this with Brooke right there, but Peyton and Lucas had settled everything between them a long time ago. They had gotten together during most college breaks and spoke on the phone or computer every now and then.

"You too Peyton. How is everything going?" Lucas was relieved that at least one of the two girls didn't hate him.

"Good, really good actually. I could be happier to be back in Tree Hill with Jake and Jenny." As she said that Jake put his arm around her. He knew just how much Peyton had sacrificed to return to her hometown rather than stay in New York City, and he was thankful for her sacrifices more than he could ever express to her.

The group made some small talk and then the boys headed off to play pool. Brooke and Peyton sat at the bar just talking and catching up with one another. After a while Peyton excused herself to go to the bathroom. Moments later Brooke heard a voice behind her, "So, Brooke, are you going to hate me forever?"

Brooke turned about, but she already knew it was him. "I don't hate you Lucas. I do hate some of the things you have done to me though."

"I know that, and I totally deserve that. But here's the thing. Nathan really loves you Brooke. We aren't talking puppy love either. I know that he sees a future with you and I am so happy for him. You are a great girl and you make him happy, I couldn't ask for more for him. But while you are going to be a part of his future you have to realize that I am a part of his future too. We are brothers and I will be around. I really want us to work through whatever we can so that when we do see each other it won't be uncomfortable." Lucas held his breathe, he knew that Brooke could go either way. She could either want the two of them to work through it, or she could want him to drop dead. Lucas really preferred the first.

"As much as I hate to admit it you are right. We will be seeing each other and I do want us to get along. What happened in the past happened a long time ago and I do want to work through it. Why don't we get together and talk, clear the air and stuff?" Brooke knew that it was the right thing to do, not only for Nathan but for herself too. Once upon a time Lucas had been a really good friend to Brooke. If he was willing to try and work towards that then so was she.

"That sounds good. I am in town until Sunday, so when is good for you?"

"What about tomorrow, in the morning? That way it will be all said and done so we can both enjoy our Thanksgivings as well as the rest of our vacations." Brooke knew that Nathan wanted to invite Lucas to have dinner with them, but that Nathan was concerned that it bother Brooke so he hadn't done it yet. Brooke didn't want it to be that way. If Nathan wanted him there she wanted to be okay with it.

"That's fine. Why don't we meet at my mom's café at like 11? Does that work for you? We can have breakfast and talk."

"Sounds good, I will see you then. Now, let's save it all for tomorrow and just relax and have a good time tonight. Why don't you go back and play pool with the boys. It looks like that boyfriend of mine could really use a hand." Brooke gestured over to the table where Nathan had a very frustrated look on his face.

"Amazing isn't it? He can rule a basketball court but he can not hold his own on a pool table. Go figure." Lucas chuckled a little and then took off towards the boys. As he did Peyton walked out from the bathroom and over to Brooke.

"Did I just see what I think I saw?"

"Yeah, we are going to talk. Tomorrow morning, work through everything. I really do want us to be friends." Brooke knew that her best friend would understand that it was just something she had to do.

"That is really good of you Brooke. Nathan is really lucky to have someone who cares about him as much as you do. I think that it is incredible that you are doing this for him." Peyton was impressed, Brooke was never a fan of digging through past dirt if it wasn't necessary.

"It isn't just for him, but for me too. I need to let this go, for good. I want Lucas and I to have a clean slate." Brooke paused for a minute, "But enough about that for now. Let's go see how those boyfriends of ours are doing.

The girls wandered over to the boys. As soon as Nathan saw Brooke heading his way his eyes lit up. He wondered how it was possible that every time he saw Brooke he was mesmerized by her beauty. She literally took his breathe away.

Brooke walked up to Nathan and stood on her tip toes to kiss him on his cheek. Nathan had seen her talking to Lucas, "Is everything okay Brooke?"

"Yeah, it will be fine. Lucas and I are going to talk tomorrow. But I was thinking, you should invite him to have dinner with us tomorrow. There isn't any reason that we can't all be together. We haven't gotten to be for years now." Brooke looked up towards Nathan. "It is important for us to all be together."

"Brooke, are you absolutely sure that you will be okay with this?" Nathan loved her for even suggesting is, but he didn't want Brooke to feel uncomfortable.

Brooke looked Nathan in the eyes, "Absolutely sure."


	21. Chapter 21

**Author's note: **I really want to thank everyone who loyally reads and reviews, I really appreciate it. I just wanted to remind everyone about my new story, a Naley, called Forever Together. This story is really important to me and I just haven't gotten any reviews, so give it a try and check it out, I would really appreciate it. Leave reviews, let me know what you think!

Chapter 21- Letting Go

Brooke hurried towards Karen's Café. She knew that she was running late, but seriously, what else is new? No matter how hard Brooke tried she was almost always late. Lucas knew that. She was anxious about how things would go with Lucas but excited to see Lucas' mom Karen. Brooke had lived with Karen and Lucas for a few months when her parents first moved to California. Brooke and Karen had had a bumpy start, but became quite close.

Brooke had been pretty good about keeping in touch with Karen while she was in college. Every time that she came home she would stop in and catch up with Karen. But, Brooke hadn't seen her since Christmas break of her senior year. It had been almost a year and Brooke knew that Karen would be excited to hear about everything that Brooke had been doing.

As Brooke pulled open the door to the café she heard the familiar sound of the bell over the door ring. When she heard that she instantly felt at home. Brooke had a lot of good memories at the café. Then, she reverted back to reality, and realized that what she was about to do wasn't something that would be comfortable, but it was definitely necessary.

Lucas looked up and saw Brooke approaching his table, "Brooke, hey. I ordered us both some coffee."

"Thanks, that sounds good. Wow, I am starving. Let's see here…" Brooke started looking over the menu. "Wow, Karen has added a lot of stuff on here. French toast, she never had that before. Is it any good?"

"Everything my mom makes is good. Get the french toast, I am sure you will love it." Lucas waved his mother over.

"Brooke! It is so good to see you. God you look absolutely beautiful." Karen pulled Brooke into a big hug.

"Yeah right, I just rolled and of bed and came over here. I am a mess. But look at you, married life seems to agree with you." Karen recently married Keith Scott, Lucas' uncle and Karen's long time friend. Karen and Keith had gone back and forth for years, Keith had made it known that he loved Karen but Karen didn't make it quite as evident how much she loved Keith. Keith had almost married someone else, but it ended up to be huge setup by Dan. It all worked out for the best though, Karen and Keith were meant to be together, everyone in Tree Hill knew it.

"Thanks, it is great. I wish that you had been able to come to the wedding."

"I wish I could have gone too, but it was right in the middle of finals. I knew that if I went I would be jeopardizing my final grade. What kind of terribly mean professor schedules a final for a Saturday? I am so sorry." Brooke had been devastated that she had to miss the weddings. Brooke had always been a sucker for weddings, but Brooke knew that school had to come first. If it had been any other weekend she would have been there.

"No problem. But, while you are in town you should stop by and I can show you the wedding pictures."

"I would love that. I will try and stop by either tomorrow night or Saturday night. I will give you a call." Brooke couldn't wait, she would probably cry at the sight of the pictures. She cried at the drop of a hat when it came to weddings.

"Well, I will take your order and get out of your way. What can I get for you dear?"

"French toast sounds great." Brooke was absolutely starving she hoped she wouldn't have to wait too long for her food.

"Same for me Mom, thanks." Lucas looked up at his mother and she patted him on the head.

"It is good to have you home honey." Karen walked back towards the kitchen to start on their breakfast.

"So, I am tempted to sit here and make small talk but we both know that that won't solve anything. And, since I am the one that screwed up I am here to listen to what you have to say." Lucas knew that he had to leave it up to Brooke to run the show, that was the only way that she would say everything she wanted to say.

"I guess what I really want to say is that I am not mad at you anymore. I am long past that. But what you did to me did affect me, for a long time. I hadn't had a serious boyfriend sine you, well until Nathan that is. I just couldn't trust anyone. I had put all my faith into you, against my better judgment. You hurt me before and I hoped that you wouldn't do it again, then I left and you did. That gave me major trust issues. You don't even know. Every guy that ever pursued me I had so little faith in. I figured that they all just wanted to sleep with me. Then that lead to other issues. It lowered my self esteem. I felt terrible about myself." Brooke figured she might as well just let him have it.

"I feel terrible about that. I really do. I know that what I did was wrong, what I did both times. I can say over and over that it changed me, but I know that you need to see that for yourself." Lucas put his head in his hands, Brooke could tell that he felt really bad.

"Well, lucky for you all of it turned out fine. I felt bad about myself and realized that the only thing I could do to fix that was to like me for me again. Not like me because some guy liked me, but because I liked me. So I changed. I started studying a lot more and working really hard. I started to do really well in school, and knowing that I had done that all on my own really helped my self esteem. And well, now, things are good. I have a great job that I got all on my own. I have my own little house. I have a great boyfriend." Brooke stopped as soon as the words came out, she didn't know how Lucas really felt about Brooke dating Nathan.

"Yeah, about that. I will admit, at first I was a little weirded out, even a little jealous, but then that all went away. Nathan is so happy that it would be wrong for me to not be happy for him because I am jealous. You are an amazing woman Brooke, Nathan is lucky to have you." Lucas looked at Brooke, he could tell that she was trying to fight it, but she was smiling a little.

"Thanks, it means a lot to hear you say that. And I hope that we can get to know each other know. I want to get to know the person you have become."

"I would love that. But that is totally up to you Brooke." Lucas gave Brooke a hopeful glance.

"I would love it too. Like I said, I am not mad anymore or anything like that. I think I just needed to say it to you. To tell you how badly you hurt me, and how it didn't just go away. But like I said, I am a better person for it. Don't get me wrong, I am not thanking you for breaking my heart, twice. But I am willing to let the past stay in the past and keep our eyes set on the future." Brooke looked at Lucas, she could see the relief in his eyes.

"I am glad to hear you say that. So, let's let the past be in the past. Let's enjoy this holiday together, we haven't all been together in a really long time."

"Sounds good. Aw, come here." Brooke stood up and held out her arms. She hugged Lucas and knew that she had finally had the closure she had needed for all of these years. She had finally let all the pain go, now she could focus on the future, no more dwelling on what happened in the past.

ooooOoooo

Nathan was looking through the produce section at the supermarket. Brooke had said she wanted to make her grandmother's famous sweet potatoes and had sent Nathan off with a list of ingredients.

Nathan was so focused on completing the list that he had lost all sense of what was going on around him. It was an all too familiar voice that pulled him out of it, "Nathan?"

Nathan turned around and his jaw dropped, he couldn't believe it. "Haley?"


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's note: **Thanks to everyone for reading. I am fairly new to this site and just checked the stats of my stories for the first time. I was shocked to see how many people look at my story, so where are all the reviews? I absolutely love this story and have tons of ideas for it, I hope to keep it going for a while, but I do get frustrated with lack of reviews. I am not asking for anything fancy here guys, just a simple I read it and like it or don't like it, give me the ammunition to keep this going! For those of you who do review, thank you so much. On the days that I feel like just not updating it is you guys that convince me to do it…so thanks a lot!

Chapter 22- Ghosts From the Past

"Haley, what are you doing here?" Nathan was shocked to see his ex-wife standing in front of him. Nathan hadn't seen Haley in at least three years. He couldn't believe she was just standing there, right in front of him.

"I came home for Thanksgiving. My sister Vivian is having everyone over for Thanksgiving, all of my brothers and sisters are here. It's a big old James family reunion. What about you?" Haley hadn't thought Nathan would be in Tree Hill, she figured he would have a game or something, she knew very little about what he was up to, but she did know that he was playing for the NBA. All that aside, what were the chances that she and Nathan would end up at the same little store at the same exact time?

"Wow. Sounds nice. Yeah, so I am here for a few days. We didn't have any games or anything, I play for the Miami Heat, so I decided to come and see my grandparents and Lucas." Nathan still couldn't believe that he was standing there with Haley, "So, how have things been?"

"You mean for the last few years? Quite a lot has happened. Do you maybe want to go and grab some coffee, catch up?" Haley wasn't sure what his answer would be. She had no hidden intentions or anything like that, she just wanted to see how he had been.

"Sure, yeah, why not? I still have a little while before I should be back. Let me just pay for this stuff." Nathan headed towards the cash register with Haley behind him. After they both paid they headed out towards the parking lot. "Where should we get some coffee?"

"I would say we could go to Karen's Café but it seems like somewhere neutral would be better." Haley looked towards Nathan.

"Yeah, how about if we just swing by the Starbucks and that go and sit down near the water." Nathan definitely wanted to avoid the café, he knew that Brooke was there with Lucas. Not only did Nathan want Brooke to think he was checking up on her, he didn't know how she would react to seeing him with Haley. He also knew that Haley had no idea about Nathan and Brooke and he wanted to tell her himself, he didn't want Haley to just catch them together.

"That sounds perfect." Haley looked around the parking lot, "Did you drive here?"

"No, I walked, I am staying with Jake and Peyton, it is so close by so I figured the walk would be nice."

"Well, I have my car so why don't we just take that?" Haley gestured towards a black Saab convertible.

"Wow, pretty nice ride Hales." Nathan was surprised, Haley wasn't usually the type to splurge on a car like that.

"Yeah right, I can't even imagine what you drive Mr. NBA star." Haley teased him a little.

"Guilty as charged. I have a Lexus SUV." Nathan had grown up with the best of everything, until he married Haley. They had little money and had to drive a beat up old car that Nathan had fixed up with his Uncle Keith. Once he was in the situation where he could afford something nice he jumped at it. Nathan was proud of how well he was doing, he wasn't ashamed to show off a little bit.

Haley and Nathan made small talk all the way to Starbucks. When they arrived they both went in and got their orders, Haley got a non-fat latte and Nathan a coffee, black. They headed out towards a bench near the water.

"As much as I love Florida I will miss days like this. Days when there is a chill making the air feel crisp. That doesn't really happen in Florida." Nathan breathed in the cool air and savored it, he knew that it would be a long time until he was able to enjoy it again.

"So your in Florida now? Playing for the Miami Heat right? I read something about it in the paper. How is that going?" Haley had kept up on the sports pages through the years, it was the only way that she could keep up with what was going on with Nathan. She was so proud when she read of him being drafted by the Heat.

"It is great. I am doing really well, I get along with the whole team and everything. And, while I hate to brag, I am one of the top scorers this season." Nathan knew that Haley wouldn't see it as bragging or cocky, he knew that she would just be proud. "What about you? What have you been up to?"

"Well I toured for a few more years and then recorded a couple of CD's." Haley looked towards Nathan.

"Yeah, I know. I bought both of them. They were great Haley, really great." Nathan felt a little weird buying her CD's and supporting the career that had broken them up, but he wanted to see how she was doing.

"I am glad you liked them. Well, after a little over two years of touring I was sick of it so I went back to school. NYU to be exact. I will be done in about two and half years there." Haley had been unsure about going to school up north, away from everyone that was important to her, but she had done well on the tour so she figured she was up for the challenge. The city went well with her, she was really happy there. "I sing a couple of nights a week at some different places, restaurants and stuff, so that makes pretty good money. Everything is going well. I can't really complain." Haley looked at Nathan, "It is really good to see you Nathan. I have missed you over the years. It was so weird the way everything happened with us, it was just done one day."

"I know what you mean. I missed you too. As much as I know that we definitely made the right decision, it was still a really big adjustment. But, I have to say, we are both doing pretty well." Nathan took a deep breath, he knew he had to tell Haley about Brooke. "I should really tell you something."

"What Nathan?"

"I am dating someone. We have been together for about six months now, and things are really great between us. Pretty serious actually." Nathan knew that he was leaving out the most important part, but that wouldn't last long.

"Anyone I know?" Haley knew that there was more than what he was offering up.

"Yeah, actually, it is Brooke." Nathan braced himself, he really didn't know how Haley would react.

"Wow." A thoughtful look, that Nathan knew all too well, crossed Haley's face. "Good for you Nathan. Really, Brooke is great, obviously I love her to death. I can see why they two of you would get along. I am glad that you are happy."

"That means a lot to me Hales. It really does. There's more though. I think I should tell you." Nathan took in another deep breath, "I am thinking about proposing her. I know, it seems fast. But the way things are going with us, I just know that this is it. I know that she is it for me Haley. I feel really bad to tell you this, to say these things to you about someone else, but I want you to hear it from me."

Haley had just been nodding as he talked, "It is a little weird to hear it, but I am glad that you are telling me. It would have hurt to just find out through the grape vine." Haley paused for a minute to gather her thoughts. "I am happy for you though. You have grown up a lot Nathan, that is evident. I know that you aren't going to rush into anything that you aren't sure about."

"You are the first one I have told. And it isn't something I am going to do right away or anything. But I have been thinking about it so I know it is out there. I would really appreciate you not saying anything about it to anyone." Nathan needed Haley to let him know that it was okay, it would be one thing if it wasn't one of Haley's friends, but since it was he owed it to Haley to tell her himself.

"No problem Nathan, I won't say anything." Haley patted Nathan's hand, she could tell that he was a little uptight, she knew that it must have been hard for him to tell her everything.

"Haley, we are all having Thanksgiving dinner together, me, Brooke, Jake, Peyton and Lucas. It would be great if you would stop by after, have a few drinks with us or something. I know that you want to have dinner with your family, but afterwards, what do you say?"

Haley thought about it for a minute, "Sure, that would be nice." After talking to Nathan she knew that it would be okay if she was there. She hadn't seen her friends in quite a while.

"Good, I know everyone will be glad to see you."

Haley thought for another minute, "How about you don't tell anyone. I will surprise them all. I will come by around 7. We are eating an early dinner. Does that work for you?"

"Yeah, that sounds good. We are eating dinner around 5 so that should be perfect. I have to tell Brooke though, I know that she would be shocked if you just walked in, she would know that someone told you about it, I don't want her to worry. After all, her and I don't have secrets. Don't worry, I will tell her it is a surprise."

ooooOoooo

Nathan walked into the guest room where he and Brooke were staying. He saw her lying on the bed flipping through a magazine. He walked over and kissed her.

"Hi there boyfriend. Did you get the stuff for the sweet potatoes?"

"Yeah, I did. It was quite an interesting morning. But before I tell you about that, how are things with Lucas?" Nathan hoped it had all gone well.

"It went fine. I got the closure I needed it. From now on, we are going to just focus on building a friendship. He will be there for dinner and I am not worried about dinner being uncomfortable, it will all be fine." Brooke was still relieved at how everything had gone. It turned out that she just needed to tell him how she felt and how what he did affected her, but she really wanted to let it be in the past, and know she could. "So what made this morning interesting?"

"I ran into Haley at the store while I was getting your stuff." Nathan tried to assess how Brooke felt, but her face was pretty expressionless.

"How was that? I get the impression that it had been a while since you two had seen each other." Brooke was surprised, normally she would feel threatened by something like this, but she really wasn't. She knew that Nathan wasn't going to do anything to hurt her.

"It was good. We got some coffee, talked, caught up. It was nice. Things are good with her, I was glad to hear that. There is one more thing though."

"What?"

"I invited her to stop over after dinner to hang out and have some drinks with us. It has been so long since we have all been together, I just thought it would be nice. She wants to surprise everyone, so don't ay anything." Nathan looked towards Brooke waiting for her reaction.

"I think that that is great. I am thrilled that we will all be together again." Brooke looked Nathan in the eyes, "I guess today was the day for both of us to deal with some ghosts from our pasts."

"Yeah, it was. It's good though, makes me feel like you and I are really starting fresh. Starting new or something." Nathan wasn't quite sure what he was trying to say.

Brooke smiled at him, she knew what he was getting at, "Baby, with you and me it is fresh all the way."


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23- Together Again

Brooke and Peyton were cleaning up in the kitchen from dinner while Nathan, Lucas and Jake were hanging out in the living room talking and catching up. "So how did things go with Lucas?" Peyton had been wondering about it all day, dinner had not been uncomfortable so she figured that it had gone pretty well.

"It was good actually. I told him how the things he did really affected me and all that. I think that I just needed to say it to him, to tell him up front what it did to me, ya know? But once I said that all I was also able to tell him how in the end it made me a better person, a stronger person. And just getting it all out there, that was really all the closure I needed. Then we decided to just start from the beginning, try to be friends and all. I really do feel good about it." Since that morning, with Lucas, Brooke had felt like she had a new lease on life. The town that she had once loved but then ran from she could now enjoy again. All of her demons had been laid to rest.

"That's good, I am glad to hear it. I know that you needed to find some way to let it really be in the past." Peyton had seen Brooke try and deal with it all through the years, she was happy that her friend finally put it all behind her.

"Well, what do you say we finish the rest later, how about we go hang out with those really hot boyfriends of ours?" Brooke asked as she threw her dishtowel down on the counter. She held out her hand, "What do you say best friend?"

Peyton threw down her dishrag, "I say let's go." She took Brooke's hand and the two headed into the living room.

"So boys, did you miss us?" Brooke asked as she winked at Nathan.

"Absolutely, get over here." Nathan patted his lap, Brooke happily took the hint and sat down.

Just as Peyton headed toward the couch to take a seat next to Jake the doorbell ran, "I'll get that." Peyton headed towards the door. She opened it and everyone could hear her gasp, "Haley! Oh my god, is that really you?" Peyton couldn't believe it.

"Yeah, it is me. I saw Nathan today and he told me that you would all be here, I had to have dinner with my family but I wanted to stop by and hang out with you guys for a little while. If that is okay of course?"

"Obviously, come on in, we are all in the living room." Peyton led the way.

"Wow, this is a really adorable house Petyon."

"Thanks, Jake and I absolutely love it." Peyton entered the living room a little before Haley, "Well everyone, we have a surprise guest."

Peyton stepped aside and Haley walked into the room. "Hales." Lucas jumped off the couch and ran over and picked her up and swung her around. "How have you been buddy?" Lucas and Haley had been best friends for just about ever. Buddy was the pet name that they always used for one another.

"I am great Luke, it is really good to see you. How come you didn't tell me that you were coming into town?" Haley stepped back a little bit and playfully jabbed Lucas in his rock hard stomach.

"Oh yeah, turn it around on me, the phone works both ways there." Lucas said playfully.

"Okay there Scott, step aside, let me get at her." Brooke pushed Lucas away and pulled Haley into a huge hug, "Tutorgirl, I really missed you. It has been way too long!"

"I know, I know. You guys had better fill me in on everything." Haley looked towards Jake, she strolled over to give him a hug, "How are you Jake?"

"I am great Haley, thanks." Jake looked towards Peyton, "Really great. Things are really coming together for me."

"How is Jenny?" Haley had always loved the little girl, from the moment she saw her.

"She is great, getting so big. Can you believe she is 6 already? I wish you could have seen her, but after dinner I took her over to my parents' house. You should stop by and see her while you are home."

"I definitely will." Haley went and sat in the nearby recliner, "So, fill me in on everything."

"Well, I am working on my master's up at Chapel Hill right now. That is going good. I cannot wait for Christmas break though, I really need some time away from school, just doing nothing." Lucas started.

"I bet. How is your mom? I haven't been able to make it in to see her yet."

"She is doing great. Her and Keith are adjusting well to married life. It is kind of gross actually, lots of making out and stuff. Thank God I don't live there, I don't think I could deal with it all the time." As much as he loved his mom and uncle it grossed him out, it was just weird, seeing his mom make out with someone.

"That's good. So…any women in your life?" Haley hoped that this question wouldn't cause any angst with anyone in the room. It was clear that Peyton had moved on from Lucas, but she wasn't so sure about how things stood with Brooke and Lucas.

"Actually there aren't. I was dating a girl for a while, during undergrad, but then that ended shortly before we graduated. So for right now I have just been flying solo. It isn't that bad though. I am so busy with school and working to pay for my apartment, I wouldn't really have time." Lucas looked around the room, everyone was pretty quiet. They probably all knew that Lucas wanted to ask Haley what was going on with her, but was worried because he didn't want Haley to say anything that would upset Nathan. Or vice versa.

"Well, this tension could be cut with a knife." Nathan broke through the silence. "Haley and I ran into each other earlier. I told her about us all getting together. We talked and caught up, so it is okay, ask anything you want, don't worry about us."

"Yeah, we dished on it all. His relationship with Brooke, everything." Haley looked towards Brooke, "I am really happy for you guys. I am happy that you finally found someone you could trust your heart to. I can say first hand, it is safe with Nathan." Brooke nodded towards Haley.

"I know it is, I was reluctant to give it to him, but he proved to me over and over again that I had nothing to worry about." Brooke looked Nathan right in the eyes, "And since the day I gave it to him he has done nothing more than make me happy."

As Nathan and Brooke hat there sharing a moment together Peyton decided to break through the silence that had again fallen upon the room. "Haley, what are you up to these days? It seems you have caught up on all of us, so what about you?"

"Well, I got sick of the whole touring and recording thing so I am up at NYU working on my bachelor's. I hope to have it done in a few more years. It is great up there, big city and all."

"Damn Haley, it looks like we just missed each other up there. I am glad you like it though. I did too, to a point that is. But really, the small town girl in me couldn't stay there forever." Peyton smiled towards Jake.

"Yeah, that and Jake was waiting for you back here. I get it. You should come up and visit sometime though, show me around. I am still so new to the city I don't really know a lot of places. I do play at some restaurants and clubs and things, those are really the only places I know."

"I definitely will. Give me a few more months and I might definitely need a little vacation." Peyton laughed a little, as did Jake. He knew how hard it was on Peyton sometimes, seeing as how she had become a mother to Jenny almost overnight.

Brooke heard the word vacation and immediately snapped back to reality, "Oh, you guys know what? I have a seminar in New York City the third week in January. Why don't we go then? Peyton, you can stay at my hotel with me, my company doesn't mess around. I have seminars most of the day everyday, but they are almost always done by like 3. Then we could have the rest of the day to hang out, just us girls." Brooke clapped her hands and got all jumpy like a little kid, "Say that works for you, it would be incredible."

"Works for me." Peyton looked towards Jake who nodded in agreement.

"Works for me too. I start classes that week so I wont have any work or anything like that. It sounds perfect." Haley looked towards Brooke who was still bouncing up and down, just seeing her old friend acting like classic Brooke she jumped out of her seat to run over and hug her. Peyton joined it and the boys had to laugh. Sometimes these girls were so cheesy.

Once their three way hug broke up everyone sat back down, Lucas surveyed the crowd and had an idea. "What do you guys say we head down to the river court and shoot some hoops like old times." He looked towards he girls, "You guys can cheer us on."

Haley stood up first, "It sounds great. Let's go."

The friends all stood up and went to get their coats, they then filed out of the house in twos; Lucas with his arm around Haley, Brooke and Nathan holding hands, and Jake and Peyton right behind them, pausing in a little bit of a lip lock. As Jake started towards the door Peyton hung back for a minute, she looked over her friends and knew, it was all going to be okay, for all of them.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24- One Great Love

"So did you enjoy this trip?" Nathan asked Brooke as they walked towards their waiting area for their flight back to Tampa.

"Yeah, I did. It turned out a lot better than I thought it would. It feels good to have tackled some of the demons from my past." Brooke was still happy about how things had gone with her and Lucas. The two had made an agreement to keep in touch and continue working on their friendship.

"Same here, and that was pretty unexpected. I never in a million years thought I would run into Haley, but I am actually glad I did. This is my first serious relationship since we divorced and being honest with her and getting her approval really set my heart at ease, ya know?" Nathan had thoroughly enjoyed the time he spent with Haley, it gave him a kind of closure that he never even knew he needed.

"I know. To be honest, I have been running from Tree Hill for years because of all the bad memories it held for me. But after this trip, after making new memories and working through all the bad stuff, I don't think I will dread going back there. I actually hope that we can do it again, together of course. I want to keep in touch with our friends back there. No matter where we end up, Tree Hill will always be our home."

"Yeah, speaking of home I want to talk to you about something. First, let me say that I know that it is important to you to have your own job, your own life, your independence. I admire that part of you, the part that wants to make it on your own. I need you to understand that." Nathan looked into Brooke's eyes for the validation he was searching for, for the confirmation that he understood her, really understood her.

"Of course I know that. Just being with me when there are hours in between us proves to me that you know what I value and that you want to me to have all of that." Brooke reached out and took Nathan's hand, "What's up babe? What do you want to talk to me about?"

"Okay, well, you know John, on the Heat?" Nathan looked towards Brooke.

"Yeah, what about him?" Brooke gave Nathan a look of sheer confusion, she had no idea where he was going with any of this.

"Well, his wife, Tonya has been working on opening her own store in Miami. She has built it and knows what she wants to sell, but she has been looking for a designer and hasn't had any luck. She knows what she wants, like in term of the style and all, but she can't find someone that she likes not only what they design, but also them. The long and short of it, she wants a partner, someone to put as much heart into this thing as she has." Nathan paused and looked towards Brooke, she was nodding in understanding so he knew he could continue. "I know that what you want is to have it all on your own, I understand that, but this seems like a step in the right direction. Obviously you would have to meet her and share some of your designs and make sure that you would get along and be able to be partners and all, but what I do want to do is give you her phone number and if it is something that you think you might be interested in you can give her a call. If not, don't, that is fine with me. I just wanted you to be aware of the opportunity."

Brooke just kept nodding, she was trying to process all of this news. After what felt like minutes of silence she was able to gather her thoughts enough, "You are right Nathan, it isn't exactly where I want to end up…but it is a great step closer to what I do want. It would mean me moving though, and obviously making some big changes, but I will definitely consider it. Plus, money would be a consideration, buying into the partnership and all. That could be really costly."

Nathan nodded in agreement, "Yeah, as I understand it it could be. But I have thought about that. If you decided to go ahead and do this you could obviously sell your house in Tampa. If you moved to Miami I would want nothing more than having you come and live with me. That is totally your call as well though, I don't want you to live with me if you feel that that isn't right for you. It is just a standing invitation. But anyways, if you did that, you would make some money from the sale of your house. You could put that towards the partnership, and then the money that you would be saving on paying the mortgage from living in my house, well you could also use that to put towards the partnership. But as I said, I have no idea about that part of it at all, it could be really expensive or it could not." Nathan stopped himself again, he knew that he had to give Brooke time to process.

"I am definitely going to think about this, and I will probably call Tonya to meet with her to talk about all of this and show her my designs and stuff. From there, it will be up to whether or not she likes me and my designs and the expense that could go along with this. But, the one part that I am sure of, if I did decide to do it and move to Miami, I would definitely take you up on the offer of living with you. I do have one condition though." Brooke looked towards Nathan, he nodded and she knew to continue, "I would want to pitch in towards the mortgage, or the bills, or something. I don't want to just move in there and live off of you. I would want to contribute to your, no to our, household. Does that make sense?"

Nathan could barely think clearly through is excitement, all he could hear was Brooke saying that she would want to live with him. "If it does happen, if you do move there, we can figure all that out then. I understand though and it is something that we will figure out together."

Brooke looked towards Nathan and smiled. "I don't now what means more Nathan, the fact that you are giving me this great news of what could be an amazing opportunity, or that you know me and understand me well enough to foresee any problems I might have with it. I know that you telling me about this, that you giving me this number doesn't mean that you want me to give up anything that I want or anything like that. I know that you are only trying to share with me something that could be incredible for me, for us. For all of that I Love you so much Nathan." Tears started to come to Brooke's eyes, "After seeing Lucas I was reminded of how broken I was. I never thought I would be able to have a relationship like this, where I could trust someone again. But you have been amazing Nathan, the whole time. You took it slow when I needed you to, you reassured me when I needed reassurance. You have given me so much and I am so grateful to you for all of it."

Nathan leaned in towards Brooke, lifter her face to his and kissed her. "I have always believed that in our lives we get only one great love, and I thought for years that that was Haley and that love was done for me. But Brooke, I am beginning to think that it wasn't Haley who was my one great love."


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25- Decisions

"It was great to meet you Brooke, I look forward to hearing from you." Tonya said as she showed Brooke out of her house.

"Thank you, for everything, I will be in touch soon." Brooke headed towards her car.

As she drove away she thought of how well the meeting with Tonya had gone. Tonya had loved Brooke's designs and the two women had the same views as to how they would want the business to run. All the details though, the actual running of the business and running of the store, would be up to Tonya. Brooke's part of the deal would be designing the clothes and getting them made and out on the shelves. Brooke thought that it almost seemed too good to be true.

Tonya's mother had recently passed away and Tonya had used nearly all the money she got from her mom's passing towards the building of the store. Any left over money she wanted to put into materials to get the first clothing line done. Brooke wouldn't have to invest any of her own money into getting things off the ground. If Brooke decided to sign on as Tonya's partner she would be an equal partner from the minute the partnership papers were signed.

Brooke had her concerns though, but most of them weren't concerns about the business. Tonya knew what she was talking about, Brooke had all the faith in the world in Tonya handling the business end of things. What Brooke was concerned about was moving to Miami and living with Nathan. She didn't want anyone to see it as her giving up, as her not being able to make it on her own. She didn't want it to seem as though she was running to Nathan to give her a better life, then she would be no better than her mother.

Brooke's mother had met Brooke's father while he was in college. Her mother, Sara, had been a waitress at a diner that Brooke's father Neal frequented with his friends. When Sara heard that Neal was going to school to become an architect her eyes widened with visions of a life in the lap of luxury, the two had quickly started dating. Neal's senior year of college his parents had agreed to pay the rent on an apartment for him and Sara moved in with him. She hadn't had to pay anything towards the rent or expenses so she cut down her hours drastically at the diner. The only thing she needed to pay for was her car, above that, everything was taken care of for her. Neal and Sara had gotten married shortly after Neal graduated college. Neal had been offered a job with a firm in Tree Hill and they had moved there. When they moved Sara did not get another job, she hadn't worked a single day since the move. From that day forward Sara reaped the benefits of Neal being a successful architect. She lived in the lap of luxury and didn't lift a finger to contribute. Once they had Brooke it was obvious that she would never return to work.

Brooke didn't want to be her mother. She didn't want to marry for money, that was what her mother had done. Brooke saw her parents together, she knew that they didn't love one another. She knew that the only reason her mother was with her father was for his money. Brooke didn't want to do the same thing.

Then Brooke realized it, she realized that she is nothing like her mother. Brooke graduated college and got her own job and her own house. She had made it on her own for months now. She wouldn't be moving to Miami to live off of Nathan, she would be moving there to start on the path to her dream with Nathan. Nathan being there was just a bonus. Being able to live with him was just icing on the cake. After all, they couldn't carry on this long distance relationship forever. At some point one of them would have to move. Brooke knew that Nathan couldn't just go anywhere, he had a contract with the Heat and he had to honor that. Brooke felt better realizing that she wasn't going there just to be with him, she was going there for her career.

With that thought in mind Brooke headed towards Nathan's house. She wanted to make him dinner and let him know what she was thinking about with all of this.

Brooke pulled into the driveway and took in the beauty of the house in front of her. As she let herself in she looked around and realized something. This wasn't just Nathan's house, it was Brooke's too. So what if Nathan had bought it with his money? She was the one who had made it a home. She had been there from the beginning, helping pick out the furniture and any decorations. Maybe the two knew from the beginning that they would end up this way, together in this house.

She did love the house, it was perfect. There was so much room, so many things they could do with all the space. It had the most amazing view. But most importantly, Brooke was comfortable there. She had always felt as though, when she was at Nathan's, she was home. It felt as right being there as it did being in her house in Tampa.

Exhaling Brooke knew that it was going to be okay. She and Nathan would work it out. She decided to go and grab some groceries to start making Nathan and her a nice romantic dinner.

ooooOoooo

"Hey babe, what's cooking? It smells great. I am starved." Nathan exclaimed the second he walked into the house.

"Just some lasagna and garlic bread, no big deal." Brooke turned around to see Nathan approaching her. She walked over and wrapper herself in his arms. "Ew, boyfriend, you are so sweaty!"

"Yeah, well I came right from practice, I knew you would be here and I couldn't wait to see you. I'll go and hop in the shower." Nathan started to walk away.

"Okay, dinner will be ready when you get out." Brooke turned her attention back to the food. She had made some of her famous homemade meatballs, they were one of her very few specialties. Brooke didn't cook often, but when she did she really went all out. Glancing down at the meatballs simmering in the sauce she knew that she had a few minutes to spare. Pouring some wine into their glasses, and lighting some candles on the table, she knew that everything would okay for a few minutes.

Nathan heard the bathroom door open as he was midway through is shower. He figured Brooke just needed to grab something so he thought nothing of it. "I'm absolutely starving here babe, I'll be out in a few so we can eat."

Brooke pushed aside the shower curtain and watched at Nathan's eyes bulged out of his head when he saw her standing there in front of him naked. "If it is okay with you I was thinking we could start off with dessert tonight."

Nathan glanced down at his growing erection and knew that that spoke for him. Brooke climbed in and Nathan immediately threw her up against the wall and began kissing her. Brooke's hands ran frantically through Nathan's hair, she scratched her fingernails over his back. They both knew that this wasn't the time to take it slow, they both knew what they wanted and they weren't about to wait for it. Nathan knelt down in front of Brooke and lowered his mouth to her center. Her warmth aroused him even more, while the feel of his tongue made Brooke moan out loud in pleasure.

"Nathan, I'm sorry baby, I can't wait. I need you now."

That was all the confirmation Nathan needed. He lifted Brooke gently off the ground and she wrapped her legs around him hard. Once she felt secure between him and the wall she lowered herself on to him. As he filled her she could do nothing besides scream with pleasure. He felt absolutely amazing inside of her. Nathan cupped Brooke's ass in her hand as he began pushing himself inside of her deeper and deeper. He could not believe how good she felt, he wasn't sure he would be able to hold out very long. Looking into her eyes he knew that that wouldn't be a problem, Brooke was almost there.

"I'm holding out for you baby." Nathan whispered into his air as Brooke's breathes deepened. She began to grind her hips against Nathan harder and harder. In only a matter of seconds she could feel it building inside of her.

"Oh my god!" Brooke exclaimed as her and Nathan found their climaxes together.

Pulling herself even closer to him and wrapping her arms around his neck she melted against him as their breathing slowed. "I swear Nathan, if I knew you were this good I would have seduced you a long time ago." Brooke winked at Nathan.

"Really? Too bad then isn't it?"

"I'll go and make sure everything is done." Brooke said as she stepped from the shower, grabbing her robe she wrapped it tightly around herself.

"Okay I'll be there in a few minutes."

As promised, minutes later Nathan emerged from the bathroom. Walking into the kitchen his mouth watered as he eyed his heaping plate of food. Brooke was already sitting waiting for him. She was sipping her wine and just by the look on her face Nathan knew that she had something she wanted to tell him.

"So, I met with Tonya today." Brooke started slowly.

"Yeah, and?" Nathan prodded.

"The long and short of it, I am going to take her up on it, I am going to be her partner. I am going to move here, to Miami, and live with you."

Nathan was so thrilled at the news he jumped off his chair and ran over, scooping Brooke up right off her chair and into his arms. "That is great news Brooke."

"I know. I am so excited."

Nathan lowered Brooke back into her chair and returned to his. They sat there together, over their candlelit dinner, all smiles, while Brooke filled Nathan in on the events of the day and how she came to her decision. The details weren't what was important though, to Brooke what was most important was the look on Nathan's face when she told him. Right then she knew that she had made the right decision, for both of them.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26- It's Not All Fun and Games

Brooke and Nathan had been living together for a little over three months now. Brooke loved her new job, he first line had done remarkably well. She couldn't be happier.

The transition from living two hours apart to living together wasn't as difficult for Brooke and Nathan as they had worried it might be. Nathan was out of town at least one night every weekend, so Brooke still got the alone time she needed to stay sane, but she didn't have to be alone all the time like she had been in Tampa.

As promised, the two had worked out a way that Brooke could contribute to the household. It took a while to figure out, because Nathan had paid for his house up front, so that didn't leave too many bills. Nathan hadn't even tried to persuade Brooke to let him pay anything, he knew it wasn't worth it and understood that it was important to her to contribute. So, after much discussion, they had agreed that Brooke would pay for all of the groceries and handle all of the cleaning. Anything else, any utility bill, and home repairs, all of it Nathan wanted to take responsibility for.

Brooke was secretly relieved at the agreement. She wanted to contribute, but for a little while she knew that she would be far from rolling in the dough, so to speak. Brooke knew that Nathan was well aware of this and appreciated him not rubbing it into her face or anything like that.

All Nathan wanted Brooke to do was be comfortable. He knew that this move was a big step for her, for them, and he didn't want her to feel like he was trying to take too much control. It all seemed that he was having a lot of success with this goal, because they had yet to argue about anything having to do with money.

Any argument that they had had was not about anything particularly important, just little everyday things. Unsurprisingly their first argument had been about closet space. Brooke needed much more than Nathan had to offer. Nathan was pretty sure that she overreacted over the whole thing, but he wasn't about to tell her that. Instead he had called in a consultant and had one of the spare rooms turned into a large closet. As soon as Brooke saw it any frustration had melted away. It was a gesture like that that made Brooke realize just how much Nathan wanted her to be there.

One Wednesday night Brooke was sitting around enjoying her free night. She had gotten caught up on the massive load of work she wanted to get accomplished and was enjoying just sitting, relaxing and watching a movie. Nathan was out of town for a game and wouldn't be back until tomorrow.

Brooke had been a little freaked out, in this huge house all alone, when he took his first few trips for away games, but now she was used to it. She was cautious to always lock the door and she was prone to take a walk around the house checking the closets, but after that she was just fine.

Brooke paused the DVD she was watching to go and make some popcorn. Just as she got up her cell phone rang. Scooping it up she checked the caller ID, she was surprised to see the number, it was her mother.

"Hi Mom, this is a surprise, is everything okay?"

"Why yes Brookie, of course it is. It is just that your father and I thought it would be nice if I headed over to Miami to see where your living, and your store and everything."

"I haven't seen you in months Mom, why now?"

"For exactly that reason, it has been far too long since I have seen you. You are my only daughter Brooke, I miss you. I would love nothing more than to come and see what your life is like there."

"Okay. When?" Brooke was too shocked to say much else.

"I was thinking this coming weekend, if you don't have any previous engagements that is."

Brooked headed over to Nathan's game schedule. He had a home game Saturday night, so he would be home all weekend. "Sure, this weekend is fine. Nathan even has a game Saturday night, maybe we could go and watch him play."

"Whatever you would like dear. I will have your father's secretary make all the arrangements tomorrow, she will contact you with my flight information."

"Okay Mom."

"Now Brookie, just please try to be on time picking me up at the airport." With that, Brooke's mom hung up.

Brooke was fuming. How dare her mother talk down to her like that! _Be on time Brookie._ She hated it when she called her Brookie. She hated when she backed her into a corner like that. This weekend, that gave Brooke only a few days to prepare for the massacre. At least she would get it over with quickly, no sense having this visit mill around over her head. Saying she missed her, ha, Brooke knew what this was about, this was finally the chance for her mother to come here and critique her life.

Never mind the popcorn, Brooke thought, she wanted chocolate cake.

ooooOoooo

"Hey baby, did you miss me?" Nathan asked as he scooped Brooke into his arms when he finally got home from his trip Thursday night.

"Of course I did. I watched your game though, you played great." Brooke never missed a game, if worst game to worst the DVR'd his game and watched it the second she could.

"Thanks babe. So what did I miss while I was gone?"

"Well, you will love this," Brooke's voice dripped with sarcasm, "Mommy dearest is coming to visit me this weekend."

"That's great babe. It has been a long time since you saw her."

"This is anything but great. Her purpose for this visit is nothing more than to come here and tell me all of the things that I am doing wrong with my life. She is going to sit there and tell me that this isn't good enough, or that isn't good enough. Ugh, it will be horrible." Brooke exhaled dramatically as she flung herself onto the bed.

Nathan had to laugh at all the dramatics, "Aren't you overreacting a little bit? Maybe, just a little?"

Brooke flew off the bed and stormed over to Nathan, wagging her finger she let loose, "You have no right to tell me that I am overreacting. You have no idea about what I have gone through with my mother, no idea. You couldn't possibly understand."

"What? How dare you say that to me? How could I not understand drama with parents, look at who my father is. The first sixteen years of my life were filled with drama. Drama like you wouldn't believe." Nathan felt the anger rising inside of him.

"Way to make this all about you Nathan, but listen to me, this has nothing to do with you. This is about me, about me and my relationship with my mother, a relationship that you know nothing about. A relationship that I would tell you about if you would shut up for one second and listen, instead of going off on how terrible your father is."

"I just think that you are overreacting." Nathan bit his tongue as soon as he said it, he knew she was going to lose it.

"I'll show you overreacting. I'm leaving Nathan. I need to get away from you right now." Brooke started to head down the stairs towards the front door, she could tell that Nathan was following behind her. "And don't you dare follow me."

With that Brooke stormed out the door, slamming it behind her. A few seconds later Nathan heard her car squeal out of the driveway.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27- Always With You

Nathan drove around frantically to all of the spots he thought Brooke might have run off too. She was so new to the area that he knew there weren't too many different places she could be. He was worried about her getting lost, he knew she wouldn't call him for help, not right now, she was too angry.

Brooke had a right to be angry, Nathan knew that, he just thought that she had maybe taken it a little overboard. He hadn't meant to offend her or diminish the importance of her problems with her mother, he had just been trying to calm her down. But then she jumped all over him and he couldn't take it.

Nathan hadn't always been so good with the relationship stuff. Truth be told, back in the day he had been down right terrible at it. Thankfully, Haley had taught him some things. But with Brooke, a lot of that didn't matter. Brooke was different than anyone else he knew, but that was what he loved about her most. She was this beautiful and amazing woman with the soul of a saint. She want wild and crazy at times, other times she was quiet and romantic. Nathan loved all the different sides of her. Everyday was different than the one before.

This one was really different than any day before it, this was their first real fight. Sure, they had argued about small things before, but she hadn't ever left like that. Nathan had known that she had issues with her parents, but he really didn't know that much about them. She had just never really wanted to talk about it that much so when she brought up mention of it he had no idea that she would react the way she did.

Nathan drove up and down streets, all over town, searching for her car. He thought that he might be out of luck until he finally spotted it in a parking lot right near the beach. Of course, he thought to himself, he had totally forgotten that back in high school whenever Brooke was upset over something or needed to think about something she headed to the beach.

Nathan walked towards the beach and spotted her almost immediately. She was sitting there in the sand staring out at the water, she looked so small and helpless, with her knees pulled up to her chest.

"Fancy meeting you here."

Brooke looked over at Nathan, he saw that she had been crying and wiped a tear from her cheek. "Hi boyfriend."

"So I think we need to talk, if you don't hate me too much."

"You know I love you Nathan, I just don't like you very much right now." Brooke looked over at Nathan she could see in his eyes how terrible he felt.

"That sounds fair." Nathan paused and took in a deep breath, he had never been good at sucking up his pride, but for Brooke, he would do almost anything. "I'm sorry babe, I handled that all wrong. I was trying to be sympathetic and let you know that I understand, but I know it didn't come off like that."

"No, it definitely didn't. I just wanted you to listen Nathan. I know that I haven't talked much about my relationship with my parents though, so I know that you couldn't have had any idea how something like this would effect me."

Nathan scooted in closer to Brooke and wrapped an arm around her, she leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm listening Brooke, tell me now."

"Okay, well, I don't really know where to start with it all. I guess it all started back when I was a little girl. My mom always wanted me to be the prettiest and the best dressed all the time. She wasn't home a lot so the only attention I got was when she took me shopping or took me to get my hair or nails done, stuff like that. Then as I got older my mother was around less and less, nothing that I did was good enough to earn her attention. I didn't even have those times where we went shopping together because my parents just handed me some credit cards and I was on my own. I guess that was then that I started screwing up, you know partying and stuff, doing poorly in school, because if I was getting in trouble she had to notice me. I was wrong though, because that was back when my parents moved to California, and they let me stay in Tree Hill. I mean obviously I wanted to stay with my friends, but I wanted my parents to want me with them. It was a fight at first, staying in Tree Hill, but then when we started our senior year and I left California for the summer, they were all too happy to let me go. That was when I wanted to start doing it on my own. Obviously I couldn't , because my parents paid for my apartment, but I swore to myself then that I would make a good life for myself, on my own, as soon as I could. So while I was in college I stopped asking for money. My parents paid for tuition and room and board, but anything else I covered. I worked to pay for my cell phone and car. I bought really cheap, and extremely ugly furniture, but still it was my own. I was pretty proud of all that I had done." Brooke paused for a minute and looked to Nathan, she was surprised to see that he was still totally engaged in what she was saying. "So a few months after school started my mother came to visit me at school. The second she saw my apartment she criticized it, she thought the furniture was horrendous and the second hand pots and pans horrified her. She kept saying how none of this was good enough, how could I live like that? The thing of it was though, I loved all of it because it was mine, really mine. I have made the money to have those things."

"That must have been tough." Nathan said after Brooke took a pause, he wanted her to know that he was listening.

"It was. It got worse though, when I moved to Tampa after college I sent my mother pictures of my house. My adorable little house that I had to save and save for the down payment, that wasn't good enough for my mother. Nothing has ever been good enough for her. Whenever she calls me she asks me about my 'quaint' little house, and my job. God Nathan, she even says job with disdain. She doesn't think that a woman should work, especially me. She always told me that I was pretty enough to have a rich man want to take care of me. That takes me up to now, that is why I am so scared. I worry that she will walk in here and see this house and see all of your nice stuff and she will really let me have it. Rub it in my face that all I ever wanted to do was do it on my own and here I was living off of a man. That is why it was so important for me to contribute to things. I don't want to be like her Nathan. And I especially don't want her to think that I am like her."

"You aren't like her, not at all Brooke, you never will be. The woman you are describing to me doesn't sound like she is one bit as loving and caring as you. She will certainly never be as independent as you. You didn't move here to live _off_ me, you came here to live _with _me." Nathan spoke carefully, he didn't want to upset Brooke again but he wanted her to know that he understood her. He wanted to try to give her insight.

"That isn't how she will see it though."

"Does it really matter what she thinks? As long as you and I know that we are in this together, that is all that matters. It is our house, our life, not hers. You have to just let it not bother you. I know that that is easier said that done, but you have to find a way to do that."

"I know you're right Nathan. And I do know that we are in this together. It is still going to be hard on me, I need you to be there for me." Brooke looked towards Nathan, he solemnly nodded.

"I will be. I only have one game Saturday night, the rest of the weekend I will be there, I promise. Realize though that I am always with you Brooke, even when I am not right by your side." Nathan leaned in and kissed her lightly on her fore head.

"I know you are, and I love you for that. Hey, I am even starting to like you again." Brooke giggled a little.

"Starting too? Jeez, what does a guy have to do around here for a little love?" Nathan teased.

"Oh, I will give you love, just wait till we get home, it's a little cold out here."

Brooke laid down in the sand and looked up at the stars. "God, what a beautiful night. Despite how we got here I am glad that we are here, together, enjoying this gorgeous night. I always did love the beach at night."

Nathan laid down beside Brooke, she rested her head on her chest and Nathan wrapped his arm firmly around her. He smiled to himself, "I know you do baby, I know."


	28. Chapter 28

**Author's note: **I wanted to thank everyone who reads and reviews this story. I have loved writing it. Unfortunately, I will be taking a short break from it, but I promise, it is far from over. I am taking the LSATs in a few weeks and I really need to focus on that. Right now I have to other stories going besides this one and with trying to study and working full time, I just can't cut it. So, for now, I am not going to update this story. Keep it on story alert though, because I promise, once things settle down, there will be tons more to come. Feel free to check out the one story I am going to try to keep updating, it is called Forever Together. It is an AU Naley, a very different Naley, I promise.


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